Abilify (Aripiprazole Tablets)

• Tell all of your health care providers that you take Abilify. This includes your doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and dentists.
• Avoid driving and doing other tasks or actions that call for you to be alert or have clear eyesight until you see how this medicine affects you.
• To lower the chance of feeling dizzy or passing out, rise slowly if you have been sitting or lying down. Be careful going up and down stairs.
• Have blood work checked as you have been told by the doctor. Talk with the doctor.
• Avoid drinking alcohol while taking Abilify.
• Talk with your doctor before you use other drugs and natural products that slow your actions.
• If you drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit often, talk with your doctor.
• Be careful in hot weather or while being active. Drink lots of fluids to stop fluid loss.
• Chance of seizures may be higher. Talk with the doctor.
• Low white blood cell counts have happened with drugs like this one. This may lead to a higher chance of getting an infection. Deadly infections have rarely happened. Tell your doctor if you have ever had a low white blood cell count. Call your doctor right away if you have signs of infection like fever, chills, or sore throat. Talk with your doctor.
• High blood sugar or diabetes, high cholesterol, and weight gain have happened with drugs like this one. These changes may raise the chance of heart and brain blood vessel disease. Talk with the doctor.
• Check your blood sugar as you have been told by your doctor.
• Dizziness, sleepiness, and feeling less stable may happen with this medicine. These may lead to falling. Broken bones or other health problems can happen from falling. Talk with the doctor.
• Older adults with dementia taking drugs like this one have had a higher number of strokes. Sometimes these strokes have been deadly. This drug is not approved to treat mental problems caused by dementia. Talk with your doctor.
• If you are 65 or older, use Abilify with care. You could have more side effects.
• Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan on getting pregnant. You will need to talk about the benefits and risks of using this medicine while you are pregnant.
• Taking Abilify in the third trimester of pregnancy may lead to muscle movements that cannot be controlled and withdrawal in the newborn. Talk with the doctor.

Use this medicine as ordered by your doctor. Read all information given to you. Follow all instructions closely.

• Take with or without food.
• Swallow whole. Do not chew, break, or crush.
• Drink lots of noncaffeine liquids every day unless told to drink less liquid by your doctor.
• To gain the most benefit, do not miss doses.
• Keep taking Abilify as you have been told by your doctor or other health care provider, even if you feel well.

What do I do if I miss a dose?

• Take a missed dose as soon as you think about it.
• If it is close to the time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your normal time.
• Do not take 2 doses at the same time or extra doses.

WARNING/CAUTION: Even though it may be rare, some people may have very bad and sometimes deadly side effects when taking a drug. Tell your doctor or get medical help right away if you have any of the following signs or symptoms that may be related to a very bad side effect:

• Signs of an allergic reaction, like rash; hives; itching; red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin with or without fever; wheezing; tightness in the chest or throat; trouble breathing or talking; unusual hoarseness; or swelling of the mouth, face, lips, tongue, or throat.
• Signs of high blood sugar like confusion, feeling sleepy, more thirst, more hungry, passing urine more often, flushing, fast breathing, or breath that smells like fruit.
• Trouble controlling body movements, twitching, change in balance, trouble swallowing or speaking.
• If you are planning to harm yourself or the want to harm yourself gets worse.
• Strong urges that are hard to control (such as eating, gambling, sex, or spending money).
• Very bad dizziness or passing out.
• Change in balance.
• Feeling very tired or weak.
• Seizures.
• Blurred eyesight.
• A very bad and sometimes deadly health problem called neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) may happen. Call your doctor right away if you have any fever, muscle cramps or stiffness, dizziness, very bad headache, confusion, change in thinking, fast heartbeat, heartbeat that does not feel normal, or are sweating a lot.
• Some people who take this medicine may get a very bad muscle problem called tardive dyskinesia. This muscle problem may not go away even if Abilify (aripiprazole tablets) is stopped. Sometimes, signs may lessen or go away over time after this medicine is stopped. The risk of tardive dyskinesia may be greater in people with diabetes and in older adults, especially older women. The risk is also greater the longer you take Abilify or with higher doses. Muscle problems may also occur after short-term use with low doses. Call your doctor right away if you have trouble controlling body movements or if you have muscle problems with your tongue, face, mouth, or jaw like tongue sticking out, puffing cheeks, mouth puckering, or chewing.

If you think there has been an overdose, call your poison control center or get medical care right away. Be ready to tell or show what was taken, how much, and when it happened.