Risperdal

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Still, what is the diagnosis

is it

schizophrenia
adhd
psychosis
AS

it all depends on the diagnosis.

Take any approval with a pinch of salt as psychiatry is pseudo-science, and drug trails are not exactly brilliant examples of scientific independence. However it is approved only for autistic children with persistent explosive/violent behaviour, and as an anti-psychotic. Pretty much all other prescriptions are "off-label".

As an adult he can decide to go on these meds should he want to.

He has AS with sensory integration dysfunction. He doesn't explode anymore; rather, he does have tantrums and fidgets like mad. He stims a lot too. In fact, his stimming changes according to his environment - he hand flaps mostly in the car for instance. I have absolutely no idea why. He says his hands fall asleep in the car, but he doesn't appear to be sitting any differently than when he's in a chair. He has improved vastly in the tantrum department and has exhibited a tremendous improvement in self control also - at home. He just can't seem to master any of it in school. I don't get it! The only thing I can think of is that the onslaught of sensory information is too much to work out for him. He calls out constantly and leaves the room on a regular basis. He asks to go to the bathroom sometimes 15 times a day where he proceeds to sing and tell jokes to himself and laugh. He has a break schedule and can leave to go walk around or go to the office, but he hates it and won't use it. He rocks in his chair - they've had to give him a heavy chair due to the safety hazard this presents. He has multiple "fidget" toys - including velcro that is glued to the underside of his desk to play with - well he picked it off! Despite all of this, he is not self-injurious nor is he violent towards others. None of his behaviors are aggressive. He gets panic-stricken and anxiety-ridden and the whole world is going to stop over very small things, and he's very disorganized. Those are the major issues he's dealing with at the moment.

My 10 year-old daughter was on risperdal for 6 months, thanks to her father and stepmother. She was prescribed the medication when the stepmother lied and said the child could be bipolar/schizophrenic and stepmom couldn't handle her. I sent my girl to live with her father last October 3, she was institutionalized three weeks later, and after six months things were so bad that my daughter's acting out almost caused a marriage breakup, and she was sent back to me on May 15. The first thing I did was throw that risperdal down the offering throat of a porcelain potty god and got her back on Vyvanse, which actually helps the ADHD-like side of her symptoms.

I had her tested for Aspergers, which her father refused to do.

Turns out, my daughter (like my 16 year-old son and myself) is Aspie (diagnosed last week). She definitely has more challenges than my son and I. She does have behavioral issues which can be challenging for educators and peers. Or, in layman's terms, she's a handful and a bag of chips.

Risperdal has its good and bad points, but in a child that young, it's iffy. My daughter gained 38 lbs. in four months (38% of kids on risperdal gain more than 10 lbs in one month!). The medication made her zombieish in regards to thinking, dizzy, ravenous and did something weird to her pupils (one was always dilated, the other one normal ). Notice, she was still acting out while taking the meds, and while her stimming (bouncing on balls of her feet, minor flapping) was less noticeable, it was still there. Far from reducing any devious thought processes, it seems to have enhanced hers, as evidenced by how many ways she found to make her stepmother miserable. It also increased thoughts of hopelessness and almost grief, and the stepmother put her on an antidepressant. Yes, the porcelain potty god got an offering of Cymbalta, too.

Nowadays, my child is "my girl"...She's chatty, socially inept, loves her computer, stims like a bird, is almost insanely creative and so much like me it hurts sometimes. Okay, fine, she doesn't "fit in" with the rest of the world. She's happier as she is. I can deal with her quirks, many of which are similar to my own. Often, drugs are NOT the answer.

From a mom who's seen what that drug can do...I'd stay as far away from it as I could, and use it only as a last resort (like, after every other medicine and therapy on the planet has failed miserably). Some of the psychotropics out there can really mess with the chemical balance of a child's brain. If your son's behavior isn't dangerous to him personally, and it only disturbs the teacher and the kids around him, then perhaps it's the problem of the teacher, not your son.

Thorny_Rose thank you for sharing that information. That post just shored up the ever increasing belief I have that Risperdal would not be right for my boy.

Do you find that Vyvanse less affects her personality? Have the Risperdal side effects fully abated?

I'm very happy to share whatever information I can give you.

Don't get me wrong here, I am not anti-medications...Far from it! My son does well on Adderall XR, and I do well on Vyvanse on a smaller dosage. Bur some medications, risperdal and focalin among them, seem almost incredibly dangerous in children. Brooke (my daughter) been off risperdal and cymbalta since the day I got her back, on May 15. The effects of the stuff are completely gone and have been for at least three weeks.

Vyvanse is a funny medicine...It works better in smaller dosages. For me and my daughter, we both found that higher dosages make us not "think right". An overdose of that stuff feels like an underdose, so the brain starts bouncing around like a rubber ball and you can't keep thought processes straight. I've seen my girl's reading level drop on a higher dosage, but go up on a smaller dose. So if you do put your son on it, keep that little quirk in mind. His dosage may need to be dropped a bit. Right now, my daughter weighs 96 lbs., and the 50-mg dosage works just fine in her case. Each kid is different, though.

If there are any personality changes in my daughter under Vyvanse, it's very, very muted. I don't like personality changes; I like to address the symptoms, while keeping as much of the child's core personality characteristics intact as possible. You cannot imagine how distressing it is to talk to your child and see what makes her fundamentally "her" missing.

She was on Vyvanse for nine months before she went to her dad's house, and when she went back on the medicine on May 16, she still responds the same. So my observations are based on quite a bit of time on this medication; before my daughter was finally tested for Aspergers, she was initially diagnosed as ADHD (at age 7). We went through every ADD/ADHD medication, and each one would work for a few weeks or months before losing its effectiveness. Vyvanse was the only thing we found which would actually help her; thank God it can be used for both ADHD and Aspieness.

Anyways, back to her responses on Vyvanse. She no longer constantly speaks, and instead keeps herself amused in other ways than prattling about everything that makes a guest appearance in her brain. She is still energetic, but more able to control her impulses (they are not gone completely). Attentiveness is more sustained, and socially...Well, let's just say that the neighborhood kids don't hide from her when they see her coming. Now, she is still socially challenged, can't read facial expressions or social cues to save her soul (I'm teaching her those now), her voice is still unmoderated, she's still clumsy, her handwriting is still atrocious (oh well, so is mine!). But her core personality is intact, and her imagination is soaring again.

Side effects are few, but the main one is loss of appetite. For us right now, it's a blessing, because she needs to lose the weight she gained on the risperdal. However, there will come a time when I will have to shift her diet to one high in calories while still maintaining her mineral/vitamin intake. She's not eating much, so I have to make richer foods. Thank God I'm Cajun.

Do you think perhaps your son's main thing might be that he can't sustain attentiveness at school for more than a particular block of time, and that combined with the noise is driving him bananas?

Case in point: My girl would refuse to do her homework, and in retaliation, the stepmom would sit with her and make her do her homework without interruption or break, while at the same time the other kids in the house were making noise, playing video games, watching TV, etc., less than 20 feet away from the study area. Without a break and with so much noise and pressure (screaming at the kid didn't help), my daughter overstimmed, and she would do even less because her brain couldn't process everything. So, frustrated, stepmom would keep her at that table from 3pm to 9 pm, then wake the child at 5am to try to get her to work. Stepmom was amazed that the kid could do so much in the morning (duh. She had her break!).

I find that the best way to get my daughter to work is to get her in a very quiet place, get her organized, make sure she clearly understands her instructions, and let her work for about 30 minutes. We call a 10-minute break at that time so she can relax for a little bit, get up, talk and release stress. Homework takes about 1.5 hours that way, but on that method, she makes honor roll.

How does your son normally destress? This question makes all the difference, because the answer will tell you how to best approach his academics. If he's taking long breaks in the bathroom, it may be because his brain is trying to operate in a curve while the classroom requires his brain goes in a straight line, and his energy levels are going crazy from having to sit...If that makes sense. The resultant stress can definitely cause aggravation, tantrums, "acting out" behavior and destruction of personal possessions. And if your son is very bright, the whole thing can be aggravated by the teaching method which means that the teacher will feed the same information to the students in four or five different ways. So if he "gets it" the first go-round, he'll probably be bored as the teacher continues to educate the rest of the class.

I'm so sorry...I seem to have written a dissertation!

On Seroquel XR (was on the non-sustained release before that); which is the same thing as Risperdal for the most part.

Good if suffering from extreme/malignant anxiety, sleeping problems due to the same and chaotic and paranoid thinking in my experience, but it's close to a chemical lobotomy in regards to the dopiness it produces throughout its effects (sedation being a part of it, as it is a tranquilizer). Benefits outweigh risks in my case.

Hesitant to give to child unless said child extremely anxious/disturbed/aggressive, as it'll also dampen positive behaviours to some extent like learning due to being doped out.

Thorny_Rose there are many similarities I read in your post about our children that seem to fit in with the risk/benefit analysis. Any indicator that would warrant such a powerful drug is not there in this case, as it seems to not be there in your daughter's case either. You have completely distracted me with the Cajun comment though because I looovvee Cajun food

Between the weight gain and the dopiness I don't think the benefit would outweigh the risks. I am open to anything that is shown to be helpful, but I don't want to lose the core person that is my son. I am so grateful to those who have replied because I really have no experience with this med, and it helps me as a mom to make good choices for my son.

For the record, he's been stimming/fidgeting like a mad man this past week. Handflapping constantly and the mouth noises/twisting stuff that I can't even describe. I am guessing it's the increased activity and excitement that the last days of school have been presenting. He's more moody and anxious too. I wish he could verbalize his feelings more instead of yelling and reacting. It's time like these where I wonder if the meds would help keep him more even-keeled.