Risperdal

[Stef]

Hi:

My son somewhat recently had his meds changed to place him on Risperdal. He was previously on Depakote and Clonidine. The Psych felt that Risperdal would adress his aggresive behavior better than the Depakote. When I read up on Risperdal though, it says it can increase agressiveness 26% of the time as a side affect! Ummmm? I ask the doc about it and he says that that's a possibility, and we'll "just have to monitor the situation." Right. Has anyone here had any experiences with Rispedal with an aggressive teen? I don't need to worsen his behavior by playing wait and see games.

Thanks

[smallworld]

How much is he taking and at what times?
When did he start it?

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[Stef]

M takes .5mg Risperdal twice a day (1 tab morning, 1 tab evening)

[camjen1]

My daughter takes Risperdal 2 x per day and I haven't seen any side effects from using the meds. My daughters aggression has improved but she still has her days. My daughter views days as either all positive or all negative, never a mixture.

I think with all meds it's a wait and see type of deal until you find the one that is going to work best for your child.

[totoro]

Well we use the AP's (Risperdal) For Psychotic behaviours and Hallucinations.
It takes away the over the top behaviours and aggression usually.
K had a day of aggression when she first started it.
She is on Abilify now, same class.
Depakote is a Mood Stabilizer, which is usually added on at times to control the mood once the over the top behaviours are controlled. It helps with the moods swings from Mania to Depression or anxiety, hypos mania. Things attributed to Mental Illness most times.

Most PDOCS will start with an AP and then move to a MS because the AP works much quicker.

I am sure there is much more, someone else will come along and fill in my blanks!

Good luck

A lot of this is a wait and see, unfortunately.

[susiestar]

My son was extremely aggressive and took risperdal from age 7 to age 12 with a LOT of success. It quit being as aggressive and doses had to be increased until it was not a good idea to increase them, so we changed to other AP's. Risperdal can be very helpful.

I would say that it would be worth a try. It has a 74% chance of NOT causing aggressiveness, which is not as good as 100%, but nothing we know of is. I know for us it was a lifesaver.

[smallworld]

I'm wondering if you can cite the research that says Risperdal causes agression in 26 percent of cases. That sounds high.

Risperdal does treat aggression. It's probably the atypical antipsychotic that is best at treating aggression. Unfortunately, you will not know whether your son does well on it unless you try. My own son had a bad reaction to Risperdal (dystonia and akathisia), but he has done very well on Seroquel, Risperdal's cousin. It just depends on each child's brain chemistry.

Good luck.

[Lothlorien]

So this is your 15 year old? .5 mg is a very low dose. I would expect this to fizzle out, so I'm hoping that your pdoc has a plan to titrate this? My daughter is about 85 pounds and is on 7.5 am and .5 pm, which will probably be increased to 7.5 and and pm within the next month.

That being said, Risperdal has been the miracle drug in my house. It has really settled Missy down and for a while, the aggression was pretty much gone. We did a 2.5 mg increase in the am about a month ago, because it was beginning to fizzle, but since the increase, things have improved.

Overall, I've had good success with the Risperdal.

[smallworld]

Loth, are you sure about that dose? 7.5 mg sounds like a really high dose for Risperdal. The highest I've ever heard a kid taking is 4 mg total in a day. Do you mean .75 mg morning and evening? That would be more in line with pediatric dosing.

[Lothlorien]

Yes. smallworld, you are absolutely correct. I put the decimal in the wrong spot. She's on .75 at night and .5 in the am. Thank you for pointing that out!