Risperdal | ADHD Information

Any feedback on Risperdal??  My son was started on it yesterday.  I'm a nurse but don't know too much about it in children.  Any comments would be appreciated.

 

Thank you

I recently posted this on another thread:

Some kids get good results with risperdal, but some parents have posted that it increases anxiety. As with all treatments, effects are very individual. My youngest does really well on risperdal for anxiety and aggression, but since we are going into a new school year, we must be ever vigilent for the return of anxiety. One side effect of this class of meds is weight gain; which is welcome with my skinny child.

I was at first reluctant to use this med, as it was first developed for schitzophrenia and then used for bipolar and more recently approved for autism. Then I found studies of the med in kids at the lower doses and positive effects so gave it a try. Talk to the doc about what to watch for (good and bad). Here is more info than you probably want to see:

http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/mhprograms/ticsalgo.pdf

http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/label/2007/020272s46s47,20588s36 s37,21444s20s21lbl.pdf

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index. cfm?fuseaction=Search.DrugDetails

My 14YO son was on Risperdal for 18 months. It was prescribed to reduce
anxiety, frustration, aggression. He is also on Focalin. It seemed to help
reduce his outbursts. Thankfully, he was skinny when he began to take it,
because he did gain weight and had an insatiable appetite. Now that we
have discontinued it, he has lost the extra pounds and eats a lot less.   It
helped our son through a rough patch, but now he is able to do without it.Our son is on Adderall and Risperdal and we have had fantastic results. We are getting the benefits of the Adderall without the aggression and anger. Tyler is happy and we love it. He has gained some weight. About 4 pounds this past month. However, he was VERY thin to begin with and we have appreciated the weight gain. His hunger has calmed and he eats good but not excessively.

My son (ADHD and Transient Tic Disorder) is on Cholonodine and Risperdal.  The risperdahl is the only medication that has not made the tics worse.  Part of transient tic disorder is that the tics come and go.  Other medication we tried induced tics or drastically increased the severity and frequency of existing tics.  Varying the dose of risperdahl has actually resulted in eliminating tics. 

Risperdahl does have one very negative side affect for my son.  It makes him tired.  If he is growing or very active in hockey, it really can make life difficult for him. 

During this past summer my sons tics went away.  He was taken off risperdahl.  His energy level returned, but so did some of the undesireable ADHD behavior, impulse control, hyperactivity and his behavior became more irratable at times.  He struggled with some of his friends, including losing two...not a great start to being med free.  He tried Strattera and it induced his tics again. We are back on Risperdahl and he seems happy again, although far more tired than he was during the late summer.

cambec39386.4216319444My son is on Ritalin LA and risperdol.  We love it!!! As the other's said it helps with appetitie which is very welcome when you have a skinny child. It also aids in sleep which can be an issue when taking stimulants.  It helps curb his anger and agression.  We seem to have a cycle thing with my son.  The last four or five days of the month are terrible, but if  you get through those then the rest of the month things seem to go well.   Our dr decided to increase the risperdol for just those 4 days out of the month to 3 tablets and then we drop back down to 2 tablets the rest of the month.  We love the way it works.  Good luck!

Had very positive results with Risperdal and focalin.  Unfortunately, the risperdal does not last as long as the focalin in my son's system because the Focalin is 'long lasting' and the Risperdal is not.  This creates a problem with trying to give meds on a regular schedule.  The solution was to move from Risperdal to INVEGA which is the equilent of 'long lasting' Risperdal. 

Paul