Risperdal to treat autism and ADHD ?

Jacquelyn - posted on 01/26/2012

Risperdal isn't all it's cracked up to be.My 6 year old son has been on it now for 2 wks.He dripples in his pants all day long,wets the bed every night now.He lashes out at his teacher which he has never done.Don't let them put your child on this.Im going a different route.Called 1-2-3 magic,I was told this would be drug free and should work for any child that has ADHD/AUTISM.It will be alot of work but I feel this is the only way to help my child.Doctor's just wants to give them drugs,instead of finding the solution that would work for your child.Hope this helped.Wish you the best.

Kathy - posted on 02/01/2010

Actually Respiradol can also cause weight gain as one of the side effects have you heard of praider willie? It is a disorder I beleave with these qualities of over eating. ask your doctor to look more into this or a prob with an area in the brain that is associated with the feeling of being full.

Kathy - posted on 02/01/2010

My son is on Risperidal, he 16, he was having difficulty getting to sleep and sleeping all night as well as having obsessive problems. This has helped him in both areas. He is diagnosed with PDD, He has many Aspergers qualitites. He has behavioral and mood problems as well and this does help he is also on Flauxatine.

Kathryn - posted on 01/30/2010

On another note after reading other posts I was reminded that every med is going to affect every child differently. You can't judge a med by how it worked or did not work for someone else. Unfortunately it's a trial and error thing. Sometimes you hit a home run and sometimes you strike out. We've gotten lucky. Only one med really messed my son up and that was Dextroamphetamine. He was also taken off Invega for a few months and put on Depakote. I demanded the Invega back when he stopped sleeping again. You have to follow your instincts and do what is right for your child. I wish you nothing but the best. Let me know how it goes.

Kathryn - posted on 01/30/2010

My son was on Respirdal for 5 years. We have moved to Invega which is respiradal but just extended release. We had a lot of progress with Respiradal and it's continued with the Invega. We have not changed meds too much. We have him down from 5 meds a day to 3.

Michelle - posted on 01/30/2010

Hi, my daughter was on Risperadal awhile back. It made her gain alot of weight in a short amount of time, yet her eating habits-she is extremely picky and doesn't eat much-had not changed. Good luck to you.

Kerry - posted on 01/30/2010

Hi,my son is 13 and we have just changed his medication the other way round,as we were told it was Risperdal that was making Jack constantly think about food and being hungry and that Abilify would stop this,we have only changed about 4 days ago so bit soon to tell if it is working,will let you know.

Carolynne - posted on 01/30/2010

Unfortunately. No medication is going to work for everyone. There are three different Auties in my life and they are all on different meds. but what seems to work best is a behavioral stimulant, and an antidepressant- pairing. i.e. respirdol and prozac, or lithium and zoloft, abilify and paxil...those kind of things. hope it helps. Good luck to you!

Carolyn - posted on 01/27/2010

I've heard wonderful things about Riperdal, my oldest son may be put on it. My youngest son who is seven is currently on Concerta, and we love it. He had been on Abilify and it made him very aggressive and non-compliant. Now that he's on Concerta for his ADHD, he's been much better. I wish you the best of luck.

Marlene - posted on 01/27/2010

My daughter is on a small dose of Risperdal along with Zoloft, focalin, and atarax. This combination seems to be working well for her. Things got worse before they got better. She is almost 14 years now and doing very well. Good luck with the med change!

Mary - posted on 01/26/2010

I wanted to say thank you to everone for all the advice and care. It is so nice to talk to others who have the same worries and concerns that I do.

Mary - posted on 01/26/2010

Thanks everone,

Alex is a compulsive eatter, the Abilify made him gain so much weight I have to put him in 14 huskys and roll up the pant legs. He will even eat in his sleep. I try to eat well and give both boys a good example, so far they love all veggies even spinach, but Alex dosen't know how to stop and e shovels it in and chokes often. We are thinking of putting medadate with the resperdal to counter the eatting. On medadate he did not eat at all. I got them the wii fit so they would stay active in the winter and Alex loves it. Even the games hes supposed to sit still he bounces around and I just let him go. The more energy he burns the happy I am.

On the resperdal I know that it can cause heart proiblems has anyone been worned about this? My Dr. is having us get a heart tracing done to check him now and then periodical tests.

Susan - posted on 01/26/2010

Hi Mary, my 11yo son Patrick takes risperidal & sertraline together every morning & has done for 6 months now to help with repetetive behaviours & mood swings. The meds have helped with both problems, but if your son is a compulsive eater like mine you may need to take drastic measures to restrict foods down to 6 small snacks a day instead of 3 big meals with set times for the food. Patrick has always been on the big side as he has a major aversion to food textures & has relied on dairy (milk, custard & smooth yoghurts) but over the last 6 months we have watched our son go from aprox 50kg to now getting very close to 90kg & he is covered in stretch marks from the sudden weight gain. So please just be careful with food for your sons sake. PS Patrick has Autism & is under the top Autism specialist in Perth, Western Australia.

Heather - posted on 01/25/2010

Medicine changes are difficult to deal with but make sure you give the medication time to work. It can take up to a month for the full effect. Good Luck, and don't ever give up. You can do it!

Heather - posted on 01/25/2010

Risperdal made things worse for my daughter and they had to hospitalize her at 4 years of age because she had an adverse reaction with her moods. She is now on a combination of Abilify in the morning, and Concerta at night. She was also diagnosed as ADHD, as well as PDD-NOS. This combination of medications seems to work fairly well for her. If your child has allergies you can also check into putting them on Atarax before bed. It is an antihistamine, but they have a tendency to make you drowsy if taken half an hour before bedtime along with the clonidine.

Dawn - posted on 01/25/2010

My Aspergers son just turned 13 and he is on Zoloft and Ativan for anxiety.Concerta b/c he has ADHD as well and Risperdal just started 3 mos.ago.The Risperdal has helped him so much,before he was physically aggresive at school to the teachers/kids and damaging things.I was getting calls almost daily to pick him up,it was so stressful and upsetting.The Risperdal is working miracles,he no longer gets sent home from school,the aggression is mostly gone.But of course,like you,it has taken us 5 yrs. of tweaking and trying things,etc.I also have another son with ADHD who uses Concerta.It seems like different things work for different kids,so you really will have to just keep trying no matter how frustrating it is.I wish you the best and I hope your child gets better soon!

Mary - posted on 01/24/2010

On foculin my other boy seen things and heard voices, and then he tried to kill himself so I'm leary about using that one on my other son.

Nicole - posted on 01/24/2010

ok this is what i have to say about both abilify and resperidol my boy was on those meds he is aspergers adhd depression anxiety and panic attacs the abilify gave him so many pernanant tics he is in constant pain from his stomoch involuntarily sucking in the resperidal made him so afraid of everything he couldnt even go to the batfhroom because he was sure bad men were in there he was scared of a piece of dust these are all the side effects of those drugs... if you need him on meds to cope try focalin the only side effect was loss of appitite but it worked for himl.

Mary - posted on 01/24/2010

If the reperdal does not help much on its own they want to add methalfinadate to it, he's been on that when we first started but it was liqued and short acting. The good side was he did not eat all the time.

Alice - posted on 01/24/2010

I found that risperdal did not help my son with Aspergers but seraquel has. As a matter of fact it has helped a lot he is also on Zoloft

Mary - posted on 01/24/2010

I feel ya, Alex can go for days with only a couple power naps. I'm talking sleep two hours be up two days. Melotonin made it worse. For some reason medications that are supposed to slow you down speed him way way up. His dad is the same way. Good luck getting some rest.

Sarah - posted on 01/24/2010

My daughter (who is 3) just started Risperdal about two weeks ago. She is on a smaller dosage. We started with .25mg morning & night & are now at .50mg morning & night. We are in the middle of a huge medication overhaul with her. She was on Clonidine, Metazapine, Neurontin, Chyrolal Hydradte and Melatonin - all for sleep (forgive my misspelling I don't have bottles right here with me), and she still wasn't sleeping well & we were seeing major increase in poor behaviors (ADD type behaviors). These past two weeks have been very interesting. The first two days she only slept a total of 3 hours - of course not in a row. Since then though she is not only sleeping through the night, but she is taking a couple hour nap during the early evening too. It's insane. Her behaviors have actually increased, but the doctor told us to expect that while we are weaning her off other medication and introducing her to the other. She told us that she'll be on a higher dosage of Risperdal as things progress.

Like any medication, I don't think it is a cure all, but worth a try. I was so anti-medication for so long, but it came down to me not sleeping...ever. It's such a hard decision for sure. Remember that sometimes it can take several weeks to really tell how a medication is doing in their little systems. We've not tried Abilify or Lamictal like Ann-Marie posted about.

Good luck to you. I hope to hear you report back with only good news. :)

Ann-Marie - posted on 01/24/2010

I hate changing meds too. I was offered that option with my son and after speaking with his Pedi doc we went with Lamictal which has proven to be a great medication with good sucess. Please let me know how it works for your son we may need to use it in the future.