AS son started on Resperdal
Find a Conversation
AS son started on Resperdal
| Fri, 12-09-2005 - 2:07am |
Our 9.5 yo son was diag. w/AS at age 4 & a year ago with mild ADHD (IF there IS such a thing?) He was on Clonidine for a couple of yrs. We made a huge move to the NW from midwest so lots of emotion, changes for him. He saw a ped. psychi. here who started him on Guanfasine.. but he was disruptive & could not focus in school on this med. Stopped it after only 3 days. He started him on Resperdal 0.25mg. tonight. Reading up on the side effects,etc. of this drug..it is very unsettling. We will try it & are to let his doc know in 4 days how he is doing. I would like to hear from any other parents whose child is on this Resperdal & how it is working. DS will an EKG tomorrow due to the yrs. on Clonidine & the short course of Guanfasine to be sure there is not any heart damage. Frustrating & sad.. we wish he did not need to be on ANY meds.
Thank you!!!
Thank you!!!

i have a 3 yr old son on risperdal for a year now. it has been very helpful. i was aware of the side effects when we started. see suzi's post on bipolar for the story of why. but, i have not noticed a weight gain or had any problems.
i know what you mean about not wanting meds. but in our case, i felt it was necessary. i was at the end of my rope not knowing how to help him. gl, valerie
My son was on Risperdal from the time he was six until nearly 13 (he just turned 13 on Wednesday). It was a lifesaver for us--for the first time, we were really able to see our wonderful son behind the out of control, violent, impulsive child.
Our doctor recently switched him from Risperdal to Abilify because Chris had high cholesterol. The Abilify is working great.
Elizabeth
Hi. My son, Jake 12 AS, was on Resperdal for about a yr and a half. It worked great-he would even sleep at night. He stopped taking it about 9 mos ago because he had excessive weight gain. he went from 70lbs to 125lbs in the time he was taking it. We tried Geodon next and it didnt work as well. We have recently started Strattera for the second time. He was on it the end of 4th grade and lost a lot of weight-now If he lost 20lbs the lose wouldnt hurt.
Liza
Thank you!!
Just to give a quick voice to the other side. I understand the need for meds and I do not blame or look down on parents that make that decision at all. We all make our own decisions with a loving heart and the best information we can. I just want to share my experience.
I never tried risperadol either due to side effects. My son had had tried many other medications including scarier ones, and had many of those behaviors to the extreme. By extreme I mean was being restrained in school, at home, was a danger to himself and others. But he already had tics and he also can obsess on the whole food issue and has lots of symptoms that always made me think he was diabetic though tested and wasn't. So I didn't try risperadol. He was on mellaril which is an old school med very similar to risperadol. He was well behaved but totally doped up. Wasn't himself and it has heart side effects.
I finally got sick of it and did some research. I put him on supplements, mainly Omega 3's and changed his diet to an organic very low sugar/no refined sugar diet. Between that, a wonderful teacher, a great placement, taking out lots of stressors in his life, etc, he has not been restrained in a year and is doing miles better in every way.
Mike is still AS. He still has challenging behavior, sometimes very very challenging behavior. He is in a special day class. He has a 1:1 aide, but he is happy and he is healthy and he is much better in his skin.
I started Mike on meds around 5 when I was told by the special needs preschool teacher that he likely not be able to be in mainstream classes in Kindergarten or for long if we didn't try something like Meds. Mike is a very smart little guy and they don't have day classes for academically able kids in district. It scared me and we tried, and we changed, and we tried again but the meds in the long run didn't save the fact that my son can't be educated in the mainstream.
I hope your son does do better with this. I know other kids that have taken it with very positive results. I just wanted to give the voice of the other side of meds.
Renee
Just echoing Renee here, and mine is all stories from friends as we have not needed to try meds with Malcolm. Great placement and appropriate intervention and therapies have worked so well for us that we haven't really had to seriously consider it, although I'm always researching just in case. We do know of children who did not respond well to Risperdal and Paxil, and then had trouble with the withdrawals. They went through months of emotional and physical difficulties, very trying times for all involved. We also know children who have had quite a bit of weight gain, as there is a medical reason for the excessive storing of fat on some meds.
Of course, we also know children who have had grest benefits from meds. There really needs to be much more research about meds and our very sensitive kids, who just are not ADHD and ritalin just works! (Yes, I know that doesn't always work for ADHD as well, although sometimes it seems to me that that is the litmus test for dx'ing ADHD, if the drugs work! Odd medical practise...)
Good luck to you! Let us know how things are going.
yours,
Sara
ilovemalcolm