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Venlafaxine+abilify

I just found out a friend has been on the medicine venlafaxine for the highest dosage and his psychiatrist put him on abilify too recently. What does this imply? He has schizophrenia? He's a psycho? Any thought would be appreciated!
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Avatar universal
Sorry, Meant "there are,"  not "there is."  Just mentioned that to make me feel better, since I do care how I type on the forum...half the time:)
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Avatar universal
One  more comment to clarified better so there is minimal generalizations, confusion and assumptions,  I oversimplified just for illustration. there are other factors and considerations when antipsychotics are used or added. Also, don't look at him  or define him as a condition or an illness. It would be like looking at a person with a cold and saying he is a cold.
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Avatar universal
I think I need to add, just so that Judy does not assume that her friend has schizophrenia, which it is primarily used for or bipolar disorder, and not so frequently with treating depression, that antipsychotic meds like Abilify, get added on if there are other symptoms going on like irritability, hostility, anger, or whatever, because of their "calming effect." There are subtleties to people's medical conditions that a diagnostician and  prescriber take into consideration, and as we all know here, each person is treated individually. Also, we have absolutely no idea what Judy friend is like, so it would be a very distant guess what is his diagnosis. Even if we knew his diagnosis, which is unlikely, since there is no other information other than the drugs he is prescribed, it would be a privacy issue. That is why I said, she should ask him. It is up to him whether or not he wants her to know what is going on with him.
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Avatar universal
Actually, Abilify is an atypical antipsychotic, when used in depression, is an adjunct to whatever antidepressant is on board.
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Avatar universal
A psycho?  Are you sure you're on the right site?  Abilify is an antidepressant approved for use when all other meds have failed.  Sometimes it's used to augment another med, as in this case, to make that med work better.  It's highly unlikely there is a highest dosage of Effexor, the other med, but what is likely is it's just not doing the job well enough by itself.  These drugs treat depression, not schizophrenia, and if you're going to go on sites like this one try oh try not to use words like "psycho."  
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