Headache aripiprazole

Quetiapine (Seroquel). Another atypical antipsychotic, quetiapine has also been approved by the FDA for the treatment of acute mania. It is usually administered twice daily at doses of 150-750mg/day. Like its counterparts, quetiapine is a well-tolerated medication. Its common side effects are drowsiness, dizziness, and headache. It causes less weight gain than olanzapine or clozapine but more than ziprasidone or aripiprazole. Quetiapine also does not cause agranulocytosis nor does it increase the risk of seizures. It can occasionally cause mild changes in liver function tests, but these usually return to normal even if the patient continues taking quetiapine. 

Aripiprazole (Abilify). Aripiprazole is indicated for the treatment of acute mania and for maintenance therapy. It is dosed at 5-30mg/day. Aripiprazole is well tolerated with the most common side effects being headache, agitation, anxiety, insomnia, and nausea. 

Daily doses of aripiprazole range from 5 to 30 mg. Aripiprazole is very well tolerated. Common side effects include headache, insomnia, nausea, dizziness, and constipation. 

The most common side effects associated with aripiprazole include headache, nausea, dyspepsia, agitation, anxiety, insomnia, somnolence, and akathisia. Dose-related adverse events include somnolence and akathisia. Early clinical experience indicates that akathisia may be avoided by starting the medication at doses lower than 10 mg and increasing the dose slowly. Aripiprazole is not associated with significant sedation, anticholinergic side effects, weight gain, or cardiovascular side effects (Petrie et al. 1997). 

Antipsychotic drugs are more often used in the treatment of bipolar illness. Lithium was equivalent to aripiprazole, and both were superior to placebo, in a 3-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of acutely manic patients [5 ]. The improvement was maintained for an additional 9 weeks (a total of 12 weeks), with a 12.7 point drop in Young Mania Rating Scale score for lithium and a 14.5 point drop for aripiprazole. The most common adverse events with aripiprazole were headache, nausea, akathisia, sedation, and constipation and with lithium nausea, headache, constipation, and tremor. 

The effectiveness and cognitive effects of aripiprazole (mean dose 6.7 mg/day) have been assessed in a 6-week, open study in 23 children with attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder [66 ]. There was overall significant improvement from baseline on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and functional outcome measures. The most common adverse events were sedation (n = 18), headache (n = 11), nausea (n = 7), increased appetite (n = 6), musculoskeletal pain (n = 6), stomach ache (n = 5), hiccups (n = 4), and flu-like symptoms (n = 4). There was a significant increase in weight, with an increase from a mean of 37.6 kg at baseline to a mean of 39.6 kg at end of the study. 

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