[Lorraine123]

My daughter's therapist is recommending this for her due to her increasing aggression and violence. What have others found to be the results of this medication?

[zebramom]

It has been a wonder drug for us. We ran out for a few days a couple of years back, haven't done it since.

[lucyjoy]

Two of my kids have used this med. It does help a great deal. It allows their brains to slow down enough to think and they are far less explosive.

[mrsred]

We had great results with Risperdal. For about 9 months. Then our son (who had always had trouble staying dry at night, but had been staying dry during the day for over a year) began wetting his pants on an almost daily basis. I did some research and discovered that urinary incontinence can be a side effect of risperdal. We decided to cut back on his dosage. As soon as we decreased his dosage he started having severe motor tics. More research showed that risperdal can cause tardive dyskinesia and withdrawal dyskinisia. We weaned him completely off the risperdal, but the dyskinisia symptoms continued to show for a few months. It was a very scary time for us, because in some cases the neurological damage is permanent. He was constantly grimacing, and his hands were always in motion, like he was playing an imaginary piano. When he would lay down at night to go to sleep his legs would bounce, his hands were moving and his face was twitching. It was not a pretty sight.
Now, it is a low percentage of kids that experience these problems with the atypical antipsychotics(it was much more common withthe old anti-psychotics), and the benifits are really tremendous. So do I think it is worth the risk? If you are experiencing daily melt downs, if your whole life is in turmoil because you face one rage after another, definately. Just KNOW the side effects and be vigilent about watching for them. Start on the lowest dosage possible and increase it very gradually, keeping it as low as you can.
Our son has been off the risperdal for 8 months now and we have not found anything to take its place yet. I miss the peaceful times we had for the 9 months he was on it.

[knudsons]

Well I guess we found the one in every 10,000 that has had been luck. Just Kidding. The primary two things I noticed when we switched from Seroquel to Risperdal was the fits lessened and His SLEEP. He actually does it. No bad side effects here.

[BD2884]

Lorraine:

I was scared to death to start the Risperdal but needed to for your same reasons. While we havent gotten the dosage exactly right (he needs more and is on a very small dose), we have seen great changes. He is more communicative about his feelings and it has curbed the violence. He has even told us that he feels happy sometimes--and I think that he genuinely means it. He also tells us when he feels sad--sometimes I think it is true, too. The greatest thing he has told us is that he trusts us. It came out of nowhere!

That said, we have had two days of raging so I think that the dosage isnt quite right. I fought it for so long but am very optimistic about it right now.

Bari

[blueprints]

We had horrible results with both Risperdal and Seroquel... Both of these medications make my son more aggressive, more hyper, and more oppositional and huge raging tantrums. He's completely uncontrolable! It was like he was not on anything at all. Right now we're back to Tenex, and our next appointment is end of Jan. The doc mentioned he wanted to try depakote next. At this point I'll try anything, his behavior is so crazy and I'm really just tired of the constant battling.

[dadfor2]

it is far from a 'cure'...but my son would still be in the RTC if he was not on the risperdal.

love love love the risperdal!!!!!!!!!!

weight gain is a huge side effect and its very common, and some kids cannot take risperdol due to the side effect.

thank God he did not have that side effect...i cant imagine what we would of done.

lucyjoy
It allows their brains to slow down enough to think and they are far less explosive.

exactly, they are able to process the information without just exploding with any request.

again, it is not a 'cure', believe me, but we do notice a huge difference.

[mrsred]

weight gain is a problem with most of the atypical antipsychotics. Our son gained 7 pounds in less than two months, 10 pounds in the 9 months he was on it. That doesn't sound like so much, but he was only 6. His starting weight was 58, so 10 pounds is a huge increase.

[qs mom]

Risperdal has been great for my son. I just don't know how to explain it. He's just happier. He also started on Adderall. He's on low doses of each. The combination is allowing his OT to really help him recognize when his body is getting out of control from the SPD. This is a HUGE step for him. He doesn't always catch himself, but just that he does about 20% of the time is great progress.