Abilify and Zoloft

carcharm

My dear friend's husband retired from the Post Office this past summer. He was only 56. She went back to school and became a nurse to ensure that her salary would carry them through their senior years. He immediately became depressed about not supporting his family. Eventually, he went on Zoloft which helped him sleep at night but he started having psychotic episodes. She had him admitted for an IP stay in a psych unit for a week. The doctors started him on abilify and released him last Monday. They advised him that he needed psych help on an OP basis. Tuesday they got into a bad fight about him refusing to get care and she left the house because she was so upset. She was gone 5 minutes only to come home to find he had taken a gun to the roof of his mouth and finished his life in those 5 minutes. Needless to say she is devastated and I am still in shock over the loss of this good gentle man. He promised her he would not kill himself. The doctors were shocked that he did not display any signs/symptoms of suicidal ideation. After reading about abilify I wonder if it put him over the edge. My post here is just to let people koow that I believe this suicide  was linked to him starting this drug in conjunction with Zoloft. If anyone else has tried these drugs or knows of others who have and suffered suicidal ideations please let me know.

I fee compelled to let others know of this possible link.

leaf

What an incredible tragedy, cacharm.  Your dear friend is lucky to have your support at such an incredibly awful time.

All antidepressants may put people at a higher risk of suicide.  Depression itself, of course, also puts people at higher risk of suicide.  

We all want to find some reason in chaos. It is so hard to deal with situations where you will never know what really was going on in a person's mind. It can be very hard to follow the dictum, "First, do no harm." 

I would hope that anyone undergoing such suffering gets the help they need.

What an incredibly horrible loss.  My heart goes out to you and your friend.