Has anyone given their child Risperidone?

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I just took my son off risperidone. To be perfectly honest, that drug scared me to death. My son has a history of self-harming behaviors but we hadn't seen any signs of it in over a year until they tried him on risperidone. He was on 1 mg and after 2-3 weeks he started showing signs of aggression and began self-harming again (banging his head on the wall, punching himself, stabbing himself with a pencil, etc.). The last straw was the day I had to pick him up early from school because he was carving on his hand and told his teacher that I should lock up all the knives because he wanted to get up in the middle of the night and kill himself. He was taken off the risperidone the very next day and, since then, has had only one incident of self-harming and that was less than 48 hours later.

Of course, not every child is going to have the same reaction and it may work for some individuals but I would never put my son on it again after that experience.

My son started Risperidone in August and did really really well on it. In December his school was talking about how great he was doing, he wasn't having the meltdown like he has before, he was transitioning really well, the aggression has pretty much gone, he's done GREAT! until a little over 2 weeks ago. Then he started becoming aggressive again, not as bad as before however, and showing strong signs of depression and anxiety and really bad self talk, his phobia's are coming back, his touching thing is getting worse and he's rocking more. I don't know if it's the drug or not, this is why I'm asking. They increased the dose a half mg, and if that doesn't work then I will take him off. Hopefully he won't become more aggressive from it, but at least maybe I'll be able to figure out if it's the drug or a totally different issue. It's so hard to figure this all out, and I'm new to the drug road and I'm NOT comfortable with it. This is so hard.

He also does not have ADD, so stimulants are not on my list of drugs to consider. That's one thing I know he does not have

You clearly want to do what's best for your son. It's pretty obvious that Risperidone (at least, by itself) wasn't working.

Please consider for a moment that ADHD does not necessarily present itself in obvious ways (especially the "inattentive" variety, which many would argue is pervasive within, if not practically synonymous with, highly-functioning Asperger Syndrome). Pre-meds, I could concentrate on things that interested me, too. It was the other 97% I had problems with. I was the paradoxical child who was well-behaved and almost invisible if you left me alone, but went totally nuclear if you insisted on trying to forcibly make me do something besides whatever I was into at that moment(*).

If a group of kids interested me enough to approach them, I did fine. It was rare unless the group consisted of others whom I viewed as comparably intelligent and interesting (ie, gifted), but it happened. On the other hand, when I was forcibly thrown into a group of other kids (or worse, forced to participate in some group activity), Bad Things usually happened (the stereotypical INTP sequence... they'd make fun of me, I'd pull out the verbal ninja knives and throw back some piercing comeback that ripped out their soul and casually stomped it into the ground, and they'd beat the crap out of me).

Here's a challenge: Try to find one sentient individual (teen, adult, or exceptionally bright child) who's taken a drug like Risperidone by itself for ADHD (or AS with ADD-like symptoms) and has anything good to say about the experience. You might find a few who are neutral about it IF they were also given Concerta or amphetamines along with it, but that's pretty much the limit of any enthusiasm you're going to see. Some of the AAPs, if given together with stim meds, can help slightly, but from what I've researched (and I've spent hundreds of hours at this point, especially since November), if you're going to do THAT, you might as well just go with a TCA instead of an AAP so you're working with the stim meds instead of mostly neutralizing them.

You'll find plenty of accounts by "caretakers" of "paradoxical" worsening of symptoms with low doses of APs and AAPs. No duh. If you're making somebody's underlying problem worse by downregulating their NE or DA, of course you're going to make everything that originates with their low levels get worse.

Think about how kids get when they're tired & cranky. That's more or less the same state APs and AAPs intentionally induce.

Here's a quick & dirty experiment to try: when your son is being particularly bad, give him a half can of diet Mountain Dew (don't worry, it tastes good... better, in fact, than regular), and watch to see whether his behavior worsens or improves. Don't worry, he's not going to spontaneously combust or drop dead if it goes badly... and you might actually see him improve. If he does, take it as compelling evidence that he might get more benefit from stim meds and/or antidepressants.

Anyway, if you want to take advantage of Google, try adding the following to your query to limit the results to two forums that are particularly relevant to the matter of antipsychotics and ADD-like Aspie wiring:

+site:addforums.com

+site:wrongplanet.net


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(*) OK, it wasn't quite that black and white. I could be reasoned with, and was capable of negotiation. For example, if I were totally into a book, it was dinner time, and my parents told me to just bring the book, I'd come right away. If my mom brought my food to me, I'd smile and happily eat while reading. Or, I could be persuaded to come after I got to the end of the chapter. The only time I really dug in and truly went nuclear was when somebody seemed to just randomly make some demand out of the blue, and tried to force immediate & unconditional compliance through physical force & violence (ie, hitting me, ripping something away from me, etc). If somebody hit me, or physically took something away from me (especially if it got damaged in the process), all bets were off. Once my parents learned to reason and negotiate with me like an adult, instead of trying to demand blind obedience, their lives became much easier. Especially once they realized that I could be persuaded to buy into almost any reason they gave, as long as they GAVE a real reason, instead of trying to rely upon "because I said so" (something that will never, ever work with an Aspie child).

Thank you dr01dguy. You gave me a lot to digest and consider.

My daughter was on Risperidone. Symtoms of anger and acting out all but went away...for a while. Then, outbursts, tantrums, and mood swings went out of control.
We took it upon ourselves to wean her off of the Risperidone. We reduced dose by 10% each week until off.
She currently doesn't have the extreme mood swings and tantrums, but still has compulsive issues, lack of concern for others (stealing), etc.
She is on no meds right now.
Could you update on your situation?

My son was on Abilify for a very long time, had terrible side effects (gained 80#) and it was a bear to get off of!

He now uses Risperidone on an as needed basis only. When he is ramping up to a meltdown, but pretty rarely. The reason this works is because there is a very short halflife, so its not that big of a deal to take it / not take it.

I say all of that because, I believe it is one of the easier meds to experiment with. What I mean is there is no titrating on or off, so if he wants to try something else, its easy to go back to the risperidone if the trial doesnt work.

My son DS7 has been on Resperidal for almost a year, in addition to meds for ADHD. While it did not help his aggression (that was solved by getting him out of a stressful school setting), we noticed almost immediately that he had a great reduction in perseveration. He used to get mentally stuck on little things like making a mistake while building Legos and could not be comforted, and now he is much more able to handle the little bumps in life. He hasn't had any negative side effects, so for him the benefit is worth it.

Obviously if he had side effects like those described by the OP we would discontinue it, but I wanted to put it out there that there are some kids who DO benefit from these meds.

My son was on a low dose of this drug for nearly a year. There was no real improvement as has been the case with every med and we have tried them all. ADD meds improved his behavior the most but he could not tolerate them in the long run. The SSRI caused mania and he busted out a window and attempted to set our house on fire. Something he would never have done had he not been under the direct influence of this drug. I think many of us want a fast fix. We think there may be a little improvement but then things get worse and the drugs are actually causing things to get worse but the doctor will increase the dose or add another drug. We forget that our child was better off before taking any drugs at all. These drugs prohibit learning and cause the body and the mind to develop abnormally.
Nothing good comes from a drug like Respiderdal which causes a male to develop breast and bloat like a beached whale. I knew it was wrong at the time but there is a lot of pressure from the medical community to persuade parents to give their child drugs that are harmful and have no benefit. Big Pharma is helping no one and certainly not OUR children. Stay away.

Some Psychiatrists just hand that stuff out like candy when a child is diagnosed with Asperger's and the parent or anyone says they have meltdowns. Its upsetting to me because it is an anti psychotic and people with Autism are not psychotic. I didnt stop having meltdowns until I was in my 30's. I still loose it sometimes but I am really sick now, I have an auto immune disease, that is fusing my spine, and we found that I have two different type of a genetic disease called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome types II (skin issues) and type III (connective tissue disorder that causes partial and full dislocation of my joints). I have been in pain my whole life but I could not explain it because of my Autism and my Mother told me I was a drama queen and I should be an actress. I also was called a faker when I had pain and told it was just growing pains. I did not have full dislocations until I got pregnant and I was just told that I had too much of the relaxant hormone. You never know where the rage is coming from or why, its hard. I did put my now 20 year old Aspie on medication for a short time because she was digging holes in her arms and legs because of stress and anxiety from school. When she stopped we weaned her off (it was celexa and it was a very low dose) and we gave her things like stress balls and play doh to pick at. We also decided to home school her. I do agree with trying medication when a child is self harming. My daughter will have scars for the rest of her life. She was hiding it from me until I walked in on her when she was changing clothes and was horrified. She was covered in deep holes and she could not explain why she did it. We did a lot of therapy and talking and the low dose of celexa did help.
Im not going to tell other people what they should do with their children but Autism is not a mental illness, however we can develop co-exhisting mental illness. My oldest son, who I lost to a heroin overdose on August 14, 2011 after being clean for nearly two years needed medication but I could not get a doctor to diagnose him with Bi Polar disorder until he was 12 and shortly after he started using drugs instead of his Lithium that was like a magic pill for him. Its too bad that they did not believe in childhood Bi Polar disorder 26 years ago as they do now. My husband is a biologist and he told me that Lithium is just a salt but helps people with certain types of mental illness, mainly as a anti psychotic.It slowed him down, helped him to think and stopped his impulsivity. It was a magic pill for my son but he preferred the drugs that his older friend gave him because he did not like feeling "typical" or "normal" whatever you wish to call it. He enjoyed his mania. I dont want to talk about him too much. People who know me here have heard the story before. I have been away from WP since shortly after he died. I have also been very ill.
Temple Grandin says that if you need to use medication to stay on the lowest dose there is because Autistic people are very sensitive to medications. I can not even take anti depressants, they make me hallucinate, its very scary! I think once you find medication that helps you should stick with it and with the same dose. Maybe this medication is just not right for your son, maybe he needs a mix of two or three types of medications. When my son got clean for those two years he found that going off and on Lithium so much made him resistant to it so he used Depakote which helped with his rapid cycling and he used Seroquel for depression and to help him sleep. When they did his autopsy they found no trace of his BP meds, only Heroin. I wish I would have been able to be with him, I would have known that he stopped taking his meds, I always knew! Stopping those types of meds especially the doses he was on may have messed with his head even more than the depression he had over loosing his girlfriend and his guilt of gambling. Sorry, I miss my son very much!
I hope that you find an answer for your son. If you have insurance you should see if they cover Occupational Therapy. We did therapy with my daughter (for her self injury) by ourselves because she was 13 so they would not cover OT at her age. We just found things that helped aliviate her stress and anxiety, like I said. Sometimes its not that easy. I have a 10 year old son with Asperger's as well and a 8 year old with classic Autism. Both my kids have meltdowns but its easier to help my 8 year old then my 10 year old. His meltdowns go on for a long time, the do seem to be getting farther apart but if anyone messes with his schedule or if he makes a decision and then regrets it he will cry about it for up to an hour. We are fortunate that both my kids are in a specialized school and half the day they go to their therapy center. We live in France (Its not as bad as people think, just depends on where you are and if you know who to contact and where to go). We get free transportation for my kids. They get horse riding therapy, swimming and TEACCH therapy. Also they are finally teaching my son to read, they believe he has dysgraphia because he did pass the test for dyslexia. Still when they use different color letters it seems to help him which is a dyslexia thing, still he does see the letters in the right order.
Again, i hope that you find either the right meds for your son or maybe the reason behind his anger or rage.