Brief Answer:
zyprexa causes sedation more than abilify

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Thanks for writing to us.

Abilify is an atypical antipsychotic medicine. It is partial agonist at dopamine D2 and serotonin type 1 (5-HT1A) receptors, antagonist at serotonin type 2 (5-HT2A) receptor, also has alpha-blocking activity. It is approved to treat acute mania or mixed episode in bipolar-I disorder and also used for maintenance in bipolar disorder apart from use in schizophrenia. Same way it is also used for hypomania in bipolar-II disorder.

Zyprexa is also atypical antipsychotic medicine. It acts through combination of dopamine and serotonin type 2 receptor site antagonism. It is also used in bipolar disorder apart from schizophrenia.

While abilify causes insomnia in more patients, zyprexa causes sedation in most of the patients. That is why zyprexa is useful for sleep and you get improvement in sleep with zyprexa as insomnia is common symptom of bipolar disorder.

Advantage of abilify is very less weight gain and metabolic side effects than those of zyprexa. That is why abilify is preferred in maintenance phase of bipolar disorder.

However if you can control your diet and modify your lifestyleto prevent weight gain, you can be shifted to zyprexa instead of abilify. You can discuss with your doctor for the same.

Hope I have answered your query, I will be happy to help further.
Regards,
Dr.Chintan Solanki.

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Brief Answer:
Yes plan is good

Detailed Answer:
Hi Dr XXXXXXX

Thanks for information and sorry for delayed response.

For long term management of hypomanic symptoms abilify is preferable over zyprexa. Your doctor is on right track. Temporary adding zyprexa will help in sleep as well as hypomanic symptoms also. After stability and optimizing dose of abilify, zyprexa can be stopped. Keep minimum effective dose of zyprexa for your sleep, do not fluctuate it.

Feel free to discuss further.

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