Risperdal...Any experience with this drug?

[megansmom]

Megan will start taking Risperdal for her aggressive behaviors tonight. I have read many good things about this drug on WEBMD. Thought I would ask those of you who might have there children on this drug. I'm very excited about the possible hope of Megan improving her horrible behaviors. Please let me know how it went for your child.

Thanks
Tracy

[peglem]

My Allie was on it for awhile and at first we thought it was working, because it was sorta at the same time that we were getting control of her chronic strep. (those rages are related to strep for her). But, once we got control of the strep...she was really raging more- in between risperdal dosing. It turns out that risperdal (and, I think, most antipsychotics) are anticholinergic and that my daughter already has a cholinergic problem. In hindsight, the psychiatrist that first prescribed it to us should have known better, since she had already demonstrated a good response to a cholinergic agonist that he had already prescribed. (the strep, it turns out is what was causing the new problems). Anyway, you can test your daughter's tolerance to anticholinergics by giving her some benedril (dyphenhydramine)- if it makes her rage, then she will probably not do well on risperdal. I found out about the benedril accidently, and it is an accident I will never repeat!

My daughter has been off risperdal for @6 months now and is doing very well on a cholinergic agonist.

I think LauraP's daughter did very well with risperdal (which is one of the reasons I was willing to try it) and I hope she'll chime in here to give you some feedback on a positive risperdal experience.

[milivica]

In our case, it was God sent (at first) for my son's aggressive behaviors, but make no mistake, it's a band aide compared to getting to the root of those behaviors. The only way I know to do that is in the RDI program www.rdiconnect.com . Remember there is no 'autism' medication, risperdal is a powerful antipsychotic, and in time, the risperdal (in our case) creates behaviors because it's intended to be temporary. Unfortunately, my son was on it for three years cause no one mentioned it was temporary. I found it after researching it on the net. In doses too large and for too long, it can cause permanent damage like TD (tartive dyskensia or something, sorry I forgot what it's called - Isabelle knows all about the damage it can do at too high doses and for too long taken).

After 3 years of risperdal, and my son's behaviors first improving (and he could finally sleep through the night, so that may be why!!!) he started to gradually increase his behaviors (looking back, almost exclusively at school though). It was suggested we increase the risperdal by many. However, I decided to reduce and eliminate it...because I remembered how when he was on another drug for 'behavior', though it worked at first, in time it turned out the drug causing the behavior (that was depakote).

My son did go through withdrawal even though he was never on more than a .50mg dose per day. Tics, every time he tried to speak "sorry" was all that come out over and over. At the time he first went on it though, it was that or residential he was so violent - though looking back, I was in great part convinced he was 'violent' by school who wanted a drugged child that was easier as well as doctors who didn't know what to do for autism so they drugged rather than treated. I can't stress enough the one treatment that works for autism always, RDI...not saying others aren't valuable, just saying RDI is always valuable where as diets or chelation and so on may or may not be depending on the child.

RDI is great for husbands too....don't even get me started!

[michael178]

tardive diskonsia (spelling is incorrect,sorry) is commonly an involuntary twitching or grimacing and it is permanent...it is nothing to fool around with. Do your research and talk to your doctor about any drug that can cause it, including risperdal which is a powerful, commonly used drug to treat schizophrenia.

[Isabelle]

you don't know how risperdal will affect your child.
aggressive behaviour can be the result of other drugs like ritalin and its variations, minor tranquilizers, epileptic drugs and others.
my son was for two decades on and off on all sort of 'behaviour-control' drugs. risperdal almost killed him, zyprexa caused tardive dyskinesia and now after 22 months drug-free, he shows tardive dystonia (it affected his neck and arms/feet) tardive means, late onset and many times these abnormal movements show up days, weeks, even years after stopping the drugs. not to mention the physical and mental changes while on the drug. risperdal caused and aggravated his self-injurious behaviour and aggression.
google ann bauer article "psychiatric drugs made my son crazy"
so, read with a medical dictionary all the adverse effects and look at the most rare, usually are more common than rare.

[mom2nfautism]

my daughter gloria was on rispedal for over 7 years worked great. but got to wear it did not work. her pchcrisyst (sorry on spelling) said that your body breaks down risperdal to a mediciane called paperidone (sorry on spelling). and so he put her on a form of paperadone called INVGA.. it has worked wonders.. she went from having major melt downs (whichshe still has but not as many) to being able to say i'm angry i need a break, I'm mad i don't want to stop, i'm furstrated, i need my head phones etc. so she is albe most of the time to now verbalize what she needs instead of melting down not all the time .. she still has major melt downs over change and other things. but most of the time she is able to say. i' can't handle this. and if the teacher listens and works with her on copeing etc. she does ok. but if she is ingnored it will gointo a major melt down.

Both girls are on alot of meds. The pchyrist said that its everything he would put them on. he said they need some for adhd, and then some for the aggression and some ofr the ocd type things with autism etc. he's been good for them and with them. alot of people in our area with children with autism see him as thier doc. for meds and theapy etc.

[peglem]

megansmom, I hope the weekend went well for you and Megan. In the face of many negative experience posts (a few exceptions), I just wanted to say that, as with all antipsychotics, you want to start low and go slow. Side affects are generally not permanent unless you are on the drugs for an extended period of time and ignore the side affects. If you see any side affects, especially irregular movements, the drug can be withdrawn. Usually the side affects go away once it is out of your system. I hope it works well for Megan and keep us posted!

[megansmom]

Thanks for the replies everyone. It's only been 2 days and Megan had a pretty good weekend, no major issues so far and I dont actually see any major change, school tomorrow should tell us more but overall she is doing really good, no side affects so far. The week of school will tell me if it is helping her I will let all of you know around Wednesday or so how she is doing.

Thanks again

Tracy

[LauraP]

I'm late--what'd I miss?

Yes, my Sierra has done really well on risperdal. It calmed things enough that we were able to identify and solve some underlying physical issues (chronic intestinal blockages that were causing her pain and discomfort, and she doesn't have the verbal facility to tell us), and now we are slowing lowering her dose. She's a pleasure to be around again (nice contrast from the biting, kicking, headbutting whirlwind who NOBODY would deal with a couple of years ago) and all the behaviors are under control now. Without the combination of ridding her of discomfort, and the medication that allows her to control racing thoughts and impulses, she would have been institutionalized by now. I really was at the end of my rope.

There are no guarantees in the world, and no, you won't know whether it works until you try it. Use your common sense, and journal the behaviors if you need to, and be on the lookout for any indicators and/or side effects. But I can say, as a person who really didn't want to use this at all for my kid, it has been a really positive experience for us. We're currently working our way down (she takes 0.25-mg tablets 3 times a day--morning, lunch, and bedtime) from a high dose of 2.75 mg/day, and she's been stable with the lowered dose, so we are hopeful that, after puberty, we'll be able to further reduce and maybe eliminate it. Think of it as a tool to help you, not as a mandatory sentence, and that may help (it did help me!)

[matika]

Rachel was put on that, and she turned so funky, she was laughing her head off for nothing, and then she started not caring, became very rude, very anoying to tell you the truth, and she started picking her scars even worse, which is one of the reasons we put her on it. She started hitting on her brother more and well, she went off of it.

As of today, I have taken both my kids off any medication, and am starting to do some diet intervention with both, no more dairy for Rachel, and we are starting to cut WAY down on sugar, so no more candy will walk into this house, red dies will also be one thing I will try to avoid, and lots more good foods, like veggies, unprocessed meats, less salt, and the school caffeteria is nasty, you believe for breakfast some mornings those kids get a cinnamon roll covered in glaze? with juice and or milk? nothing else, that is not right, I am sorry not sure who decides on what they feed them kids, but I am in unbelief seen what they feed out kids. So from now on no breakfast at school, and lunch only when I see they are feeding them something half way descent,,

well anyways, I am going on and on

Best of luck on your decition, but please do get all the facts, and make sure they test your kid's heart and blood preasure prior to putting them in this meds if you go that way, they suppose to do that, something they never have done with either of my kids prior to medicate, such a shame for the doctors really.

Take care