Anyone’s child been prescribed risperidone?

[Lesley25]

Hi

My son has SLD and S autism, and has been prescribed a small dose of 500mg of risperidone to see if this reduces his aggressive epsiodes.

Anyone have any advice on negative side effects?

If their child’s been prescribed it how long did it take to see any change?

My son has the tablets which I crush and smuggle in food. I know there’s a liquid but the taste is what I’m worried about.

Any useful advice anyone can give me I’d be grateful for. Thank you in advance

[Headfirstintothewild]

DS1 takes Risperidone. He has taken it for years. He has tried to switch to a couple of other antipsychotics but then switched back because they didn’t work as well as Risperidone and had more side effects.

It hasn’t been a miracle cure, especially at night (lots find it causes drowsiness, DS1 isn’t one of them), but is definitely worth it and it prevented a CAMHS inpatient admission. It reduces the frequency of DS1’s rapid swings from high to low and back again, and lows aren’t as low. Levelling DS1 out improved everything, for the whole house - DS’s engagement with life, the world and therapies (prior to medication he couldn’t engage at all), his communication (was verbal but struggled to communicate due to anxiety and has SM. Still struggles but not to the same extent), his physical health, self injurious behaviour reduced significantly…

It increased DS’s appetite. That wasn’t a problem for DS1 he needs to put on weight. Although this doesn’t seem to be the case now because he has barely eaten anything orally this year.

I can’t remember how long it took to see real differences. It wasn’t straight away I remember that and we increased the dosage slowly.

[cansu]

It has helped ds. Agree it isn't a miracle cure but I do think it has made a significant difference especially when ds was younger. It seemed to even his moods out. He was more settled. I think he did seem to get accustomed to it over time and the impact was less after a while. Initially weight gain but that settled after a few months.

[OneInEight]

Unfortunately, ds2 had the opposite experience with risperidone. Basically it made him suicidal and psychotic (suddenly aggressive without any triggers). He was on it for about 3 months when he was 10. In hindsight warning signs were sleep disruption and increased need to go to the loo. I have to say the first couple of weeks he was on it it did help with his anxiety just a shame that for him the long-term effects were so distressing. There was never any explanation as to why he had harmful effects rather than the positive effects seen by some other youngsters. I am not saying don't try it just be very mindful that new behaviours may be linked to the drug.

[Lesley25]

Thank you everyone. very useful comments. I’m hoping for the best.