Risperdal

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Does anyone have any experience with Risperdal for their child? The psychiatrist is suggesting this for my son (10 yo, Aspergers Syndrome) but I have serious reservations due to the side effect of male breast enlargement and the lack of testing in children. I have been getting "medicate him" from schools and therapists since he's been in school (and no legitimate diagnosis to warrant meds!) and I have held out this long with tremendous improvements in the home but unfortunately, not much improvement in school. He calls out and fidgets and stims in his seat to the point that the rest of the class is disrupted. He has to have a support person with him in the classroom and he exhausts and frustrates his teachers to no end. He's not hyperactive, but he is impulsive. He has no problem focusing although it doesn't appear as though he is at all. He's not meeting the criteria for ADHD, but he's so impulsive. I am pretty much at a loss. I have no idea how to fix his school behavior. I believe the impulsivity is due to his sensory issues and the inability to properly filter stimuli rendering him unable to think before he acts. This makes sense because behavioral modification has made a world of difference at home. Knowing how to communicate with him and teach him in the way he understands (and knowing what he needs to be taught) is easy in the home where the stimuli is virtually none. It's just us so I can completely control his environment in our house. Oh how I wish I could afford to home school him, but I have to work and he needs to learn to function in the world. Would any medication really affect this to a positive degree without making him a zombie? Any ideas?? Thank you.

To be honest, there's really no telling how Risperdal would affect your son. Everyone responds to medications differently. For example, I have a very high threshold for medication (including Risperdal), but I've heard stories about other people my age who've tried the meds I'm on and became very sick.

Well, for one thing, they're not prescribing it to your son too young - I read that it can be used on children as young as age 10. And the breasts/lactation thing doesn't happen unless you've been taking it for years. I've been on Risperdal for about 4 years, and that didn't happen to me until about the 3rd year.

And as for the way Risperdal has been impacting me - Well, it took away all of the unpleasant, intrusive thoughts I'd been suffering from, and since I take it before I go to bed, it helps me to relax so that I can go to sleep (though that could also be from the Xanax I take with it). I honestly don't think that Risperdal made me a zombie - it just helped me think more clearly and rationally.

A word of warning - IF Risperdal becomes a part of your son's life, please don't let him skip any dosages. Whenever I skip a dose, I can't sleep, I feel sick/lightheaded and I start having intrusive, irrational thoughts again.

Aaaand that's pretty much what I know about Risperdal. I hope my information was at least somewhat helpful to you.

I wouldn't feel pressured to put your child on a powerful med. I work with lots of kids that have impulsivity issues and are not medicated. Agreeably, they are more challenging. But, as much as it makes my job harder, I would never want to see these kids drugged up. No way. There are too many health risks and no long term studies!

Tell the pscyh to try out his own advice and get himself a prescription. Also, get a new psych. and tell him right away that you are not considering meds unless your child begins to hallucinate or threaten to hurt himself (in a serious way). Impulsivity and attention problems are no reason to drug a child. Modifications, redirection. humor and tolerance are the two best ways to handle inattention and impulsivity.

Whatever decision you make, it's wise to do your research and start of on the lowest dosage possible. Go with that for awhile, see what happens, and adjust if you need to.

I got to the point where I had to medicate my son (also 10, AS/Tourettes/ADHD) because I had exhausted every other option available to me. In the end, the meds was the best decision I had made in a long time. My promise to my son is always that the decisions I make about his care are only to help him be the best version of himself. I don't want to change him, I want to help him succeed and feel comfortable in his own skin.

He is on Risperidal and we've had good experiences with it. He's on a minimal dosage and hasn't had any side effects from it. I feel that it has allowed him to finally just be himself. He functions better, so he feels better, and he has happier days. He started it when he was in school, but now we homeschool and I'm still keeping him on it because the change has been so incredibly positive.


Good luck with your decision.

ravenclawgurl, what B vitamins do you take - is it labeled as a B-Complex or do you take specific ones? What doses do you take?

its labeled B-50 caps Vitamin b-Complex dietary supplement by the brand twin lab

I take a high potency one but i had to experiment with levels to find the right level for me. Though its bound to be a smaller dosage for your son sice he is only 10 years old and has a smaller body weight.


there is a picture at this website

http://www.vitamintree.com/product_9bea_twin-labb-50-complex.aspx

Emm, Risperdal is an anti-psychotic...
I had something called Abilify (Aripiprazol) which is a bit different but in general -- That's not what a kid with AS needs..

I took Zoloft at first, switched to Abilify and both are just to treat the symptoms of anxiety and depression,
while I can understand you not wanting to hand your kid Concerta or such I'd atleast say that you should stay away from antipsychotics as long as possible.

But as far as for me I had basicly the same issue all the way through, the Zoloft made me a zombie, then the Abilify made me a veggie.
When I got my Concerta things changed,
I could Read more than a sentence without yawning, I could stop myself from doing those cute but annoying things I just wanted to do, I could cancel a train of thought that had gone haywire and so on.

Zombie no more.

Ok this just comes of as an Advertisement for Concerta atm, but I am in favour of depot tablets more than Ritalin and such that you have to toss in a few times a day.

My side effects so far is dryness of mouth, sweating (armpits only), loss of appetite and a few things that a 10yo shouldn't worry for *cough*


Summed up: Antipsychotics should be your Last resort.

I am in such appreciation for your responses. These were exactly the kinds of replies I was hoping to get. Thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts on this since I can only get so much from research and studies. Hearing about people's reactions to different treatments helps to get an idea of the options and possibilities far more than a study could ever provide. I am really intrigued by the vitamin supplement route...so thank you so much for your input on that Ravenclawgurl. Xs142, I think you make a great point with the Concerta too. I know that different medications have different effects on different people. CelticGoddess, I have exhausted everything for school and reading what you've written definitely helps me to feel at ease with it. equinn I feel exactly the same way and I have mastered this in my home finally after 10 years but school is a whole different story. I have the school working very hard on my son's behalf and they are handpicking his teacher for next year to suit him. His teacher this year wasn't a good fit. Although she's a great teacher, there simply was not enough structure and organization in the classroom and my boy needs that desperately. I hope his teacher is like you IdahoRose thank you so much for your experience with Risperdal too. It is definitely a help to me!

I am so upset about this because on one hand I have my parents telling me about all of the side effects and the TV show they saw about boys on Risperdal having to have mastectomies due to the side effect of breast enlargement. On the other hand I have doctors, therapists and psychologists telling me they think it would help. No matter what decision I make I have an important driving force in our lives telling me I am doing the wrong thing. In the middle of all of this mess is my beautiful son, who I would absolutely do anything on Earth for to help make his life wonderful. I am so worried that I will make the wrong choice.

What you should ask yourself: Is this medication supposed to make your son feel better? Or is it rather so his teachers and other caretakers are relieved of his impulsive behavior? If the latter is the case, you must be aware your son won't benefit from medication. It would be another matter entirely if he was harming himself or others or if he seriously suffered. Sedating someone simply because he's disrupting class is a rather drastic measure. Also there's the risk of side effects and the lack of testing with children. So personally, I'd decide against it. High risk and not much to gain. It's not likely your son will be able to learn better while he's on hard drugs. He'll simply be quiet. That doesn't equal attentive or even addressable. (The teachers will of course LOVE the effect - for the sake of all the other children in the classroom. The others are, of course, going to benefit. Your son himself probably won't. You have to consider the "advice" to medicate him from side of the teachers might be not completely unselfish...)
I've seen people on Risperdal (I'm a voluntary chess teacher working with several people on the spectrum), and frankly, I think it's abuse unless these persons are a danger to themselves and any other option is exhausted. "Zombie" does describe the effect quite well. I wouldn't do this to anyone just to get a rest from them. (I'm sure you wouldn't, either. I'm not accusing you of thinking like that, far from it! That you're looking for advice shows that you're thinking this through for your son's sake. But some of the teachers might be willing to agree to ANYTHING to get your son to sit still and shut up. They most likely don't love him quite as much as you do. Never forget that.)
Also, there might be alternatives. Try getting the teachers to allow your son to leave the classroom for a couple of minutes if he's overwhelmed. (I was allowed to visit the cafeteria during class. Running the way there and back helped. The cake I got there helped, too. At least it improved my mood and my willingness to concentrate.) Or look for a school with smaller study groups. That one works miracles if it's really sensory issues. Speaking from my own experience there. Classes with less than 10 pupils were always a relief and I was stimming significantly less.
Anyway, I wish you and your son the best of luck.

I say take it slow and don't jump into medicating your child. It might be right for him or not. If he is hearing voices and having hallucinations, is schizophrenic or bipolar, then yes if you start medicating early, then it will decrease the bad neurological changes in the brain that worsen these diseases. You also decrease the risk of suicide, social isolation, and depression. It depends on what your child has and what they wanna prescribe.

You should try to avoid ADHD medications because in the long term they will stunt the growth of your son, so it's usually a good idea to only medicate adults. But if you decide upon that route then you could consider adderall or deoxyn, as they have less side-effects than concerta.

I don't think you should try anti-psychotics, because they will turn your son into a zombie. Sometimes they are needed to treat stimming in autistic individuals, but then they should only be used when the stimming is self-mutilating or self-harming. Using them to make your son less of a distraction to others seems an over-reaction.

Vitamins can be good, but as with everything they can make the problem worse. Most vitamin supplements contain vitamins in rediculous quanitites as well, and the old saying "you can never have enough" simply just doesn't apply. If you want your son to get more vitamins, don't use supplements, change his diet.

Although most ADHD is caused by dopamine dysregulation (hence the need to take stimulants), there is a separate version of ADHD called hypokalemic sensory overstimulation, that can be treated with potassium supplements, as with the vitamins, too much potassium can cause problems.

psychiatrists are prescribers of drugs, that is the whole point of their training and that is what they specialise in so they will very often recommend drugs. so...he's doing what he's been trained to do, whether it's what you want or need is another thing.

Man for me risperdal caused me to gain a large amount of weight but like everybody said it affect many people differently

The more I look at this, the more I realize that the meds are probably not the answer. He has another appointment today and I am going to tell them that we are going to keep on with the behavioral modification. It is slow, but steady, and it does work. I just have to make sure he gets the ideal situation in the classroom to facilitate this. I have a person that will be with him full time in the classroom (supplied by my own autism wrap around services) starting next year, and I have a good feeling about it because I think the school will feel that the teacher will have less disruption. The special education group at his school is awesome by the way - combining the spec ed people with the actual regular classroom is where it gets fuzzy; thus is the world of inclusive education. Now to find the right teacher for him! That truly is the key.

I am just not sold on the med route because at this point it really would be more for school than for him. He's a straight A student! His stimming and impulsiveness hasn't impaired his ability to do his school work. I think if his grades take a nose dive then it's time to consider it. Until then, I am just pleasing everyone else in the school, but not necessarily doing what's best for my son.

Thank you all for helping me sort this out in my own brain! I appreciate your responses more than I could express.