Risperdal: Does any jelly have experience with this drug?

Contact the boy’s Doctor, should be listed on prescription bottle.

Explain your relationship.

Ask for dosing and contraindications.

This a heavy duty antipsychotic they prescribe for schizophrenics, isn’t it? Eh… mid-levelish, I guess you could say. It’s atypical, so normally people have enough energy to get out of bed, but it’s also known for serious side effects more than other atypicals. It’s prescribed for schizophrenia, and a whole bunch of other stuff (schizoaffective, bipolar, autism, OCD, Turettes, stuttering…). Just from my own personal, totally anecdotal experience, I haven’t known many psychiatrists who will prescribe it if they don’t have to within the past decade, and have known a lot of people who had problems with it and switched to another atypical antipsychotic.

I know a lot of people who take it or took it for bipolar. Often times it seems that anti-anxiety medications also work on bipolar. Sounds like it was prescribed for anti-anxiety.

I don’t know it’s specific side effects, but the common side effects that people hate are gaining weight, loss of sexual desire and a feeling of slowness or stupidity. I don’t know how well your step-son communicates his feelings—not well, I’m guessing, if he’s autistic—so you might be on the lookout for him seeming to act slower and being more tired. Also, if he puts on weight, I would be concerned. There are other alternatives that might not have bad side effects.

If you like, you can educate yourself about these meds on any number of sites. The WebMDs and other medical sites list the official information. If you go to DBSA or NAMI, you can probably find patient discussions of the various meds. There will also be descriptions of the classes of drugs that are used for these conditions.

I would not be scared by the “heavy hitter” sounding nature of the drug. It can really help. Just watch out for side effects and try to judge how severe they are. If they hurt his quality of life, it’s time to look for an alternative.

@Tropical_Willie I am not on the list of people who is able to get his medical records. I am only the ‘step-parent’ and have no rights.

I am not worried about the loss of sexual desire, in fact I would count that as a bonus. His emerging tastes in that realm are mildly disturbing.

It took some doing, but I finally got the information from her about when he takes it. The how much is on the bottle. He couldn’t tell me when I asked him if he had had a dosage today or not, so I had to check that with her too. S
He is a string bean so a bit of weight gain would be fine. How does the weight gain occur? Increase in appetite? I found out that he has been doing so good he has gone back to school in his new school and he seemed sooo much happier when he arrived today. He also likes working out and they do that at his school, so he isn’t just sitting in front of a screen all day, which I am so relieved about. He is extremely vague at the best of times, but today, when he got here we talked a bit and during our conversation he remembered something I had told him WEEKS ago, which was sooo amazingly cool. Hardly ever happens, but he must have liked the story I told him and remembered it.

I also think he is on a pretty small dosage of it.

I don’t know if it occurs on this drug, in the first place. It’s just something that people have talked about and something I think you might just keep in the back of your mind in case you see it happening. If it happens, I also don’t know if it is an increased desire to eat or a slower metabolism. I don’t know if I have ever heard anyone explain to me why these drugs have that particular side effect.

If he seems happier—well, I wonder about that. How long has he been on it? It can take up to a month for people to see results. Although I have also heard of people feeling a change within a few days. But it seems surprising to me for people to get results that quickly. Two weeks to a month seems like what happens more often.

In any case, it could well be the drug that is helping him, and that is something to be grateful for. For sure!

One of my stepkids takes it for a bipolar diagnosis and so far, almost a year into the medication, all seems as well as can be expected for a 17yr old. There has been a little bit of weight gain but who’s to know if it’s hormones/normal growth or the meds? What we have noticed to the positive are the mood swing crashes aren’t as intense and not for as long when they do hit.

I didn’t notice a date on the bottle. I would have to look closer to see. Or ask his mother and she is in Sweden now with her boyfriend and doesn’t want to be bothered. She isn’t sure when she will be back either… ‘maybe tuesday’ I got back as an answer.

No one told us he was on this drug. We got no letter from the doctor. I thought they would try a less intense drug, like Paxil, or even just a placebo at first. I think, in his case, a placebo could work wonders. I have used suggestion with him before and it worked like magic.

They put my 93 yr old Mom on it and she is doing very well.

Looked at the bottle and it is dated the 15th of May, so it has been two weeks. He really is much better than he was two weeks ago. He is sharing and laughing at things and getting excited a little. He is still having trouble sleeping here. We need to get him a new bed. He even looked at pictures of beds with me on line last night before I put him to bed. He wanted me to take his mattress and lay it on the floor, off of his bed. Apparently, at his mother’s he is still sleeping on the couch in front of the TV so he finds sleeping in a proper bed with no TV in his room difficult. We looked at futons and he decided that looked great and would be a good compromise. In the meantime, we have an double bed size air mattress that he really likes, so he and I blew that up together last night. He thought that was fun. Perhaps this drug is just what he needs. I hope that it isn’t tapping in a thumbtack with a sledge hammer.

@jazmina88 what does your 93yr old mother have that requires this drug?

My 11 yr old son has autism & has been taking Risperdal since he was 4 or 5. It was the first drug that was ever considered to be officially used for autism about 5 years ago.

While it has been very effective for my kid the dramatic increase in appetite is often difficult to deal with. Others I’ve spoken to about this topic also tell me that the weight gain is a major concern for them but most of the meds that could be used to replace it has the same side effects. Personally, I’ve found that it has taken me a while to accept this.

However, if you were in a large room filled with well-controlled autistic people, you’d be in a room filled with obese or nearly obese people.

For our family we have found that the benefits outweigh [no pun intended] the costs.

@Glad2bhear thank you so much for your response. The anxiety problem he is suffering from is actually causing him to lose his appetite, so if this drug can calm him and get him to eat as well, it will actually be treating two problems. I bought him new pants at Christmas and they are just hanging off of him now. He was given a bowl of candy and some potato chips on Saturday, but didn’t finish them because he became nervous that they would get stuck in his throat, or were getting stuck in his throat and starting to choke him.

We are celebrating his birthday this coming weekend and I am going to make him his favourite chocolate cake and I really hope he manages to eat a whole piece.

^Gluten-free cake?

We do not do gluten free.

As I guy I noticed weight gain and man boobs…other wise known as Bitch tits.