Hi again Dan

I would urge caution on increasing the dose of Abilify without careful monitoring from your son's physician.
There are some concerns on it for teens and elderly people, plus it could also be the reason for your child's weight gain

I do know for some people it has tremendous benefit in relieving the tics so it's good to hear your son has had positive results from it

sometimes, as you no doubt know, TS tics can wax and wane nomatter the treatments being used, so you son may just be in a waxing mode, or some other factor could have triggered the tic increase. Not sure if you have ever seen the triggers for Tics article by Sheila Rogers
http://www.latitudes.org/articles/finding_triggers.htm



The FDA did issue an alert on Abilify http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/SAFETY/2004/abilify_pi.pdf
and here too is the manufacturer's info
www.abilify.com

you may also want to ask about the optimum dose info on our medications forum as mrsD might have that info for you
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum72.html

as an aside
many people with TS have found L-carnitine (an amino acid) to help greatly reduce vocal tics
HOWEVER
please do discuss this with the doc before trying it as it may have interaction with abilify!!

hope that helps a bit and all the best