son needs help

[renee1973]

my son dustin who is 10 has been taking 4mg of risperdal for the treatment of bipolar-mood disorders for about 3 years his pshyciatrist about 2 weeks ago cut the dose in half to try to wean him off slowly over a two month period the past week he has been real emotional could someone please tell me if there is another type of medication that works as well as resperdal without any of the harmful side effects of resperdal

[margypops]

It is good that this works for you and your son, that is all parents want I am sure, to help their children.

[hopelessmom]

My son took risperdal for a long time for his mood disorder.  He was very manic without it.  The side affect that concerned me was the eating.  Sometimes he would eat until he vomited.  Apparently, risperdal turns off the switch in the brain that signals fullness.  His eating was becoming a real problem, so we asked about Abilify.  He's been on that a good while, and it works.  He's taking 5mg 3 times per day.  It's not perfect, but it's better than the rages.  I will warn you that it does make him kind of sleepy, but not too bad.  During the day he's also on Vyvanse for ADHD which helps counteract the sleepiness.

Luckily, we have a very good arrangement with our child psychiatrist.  He truly listens to our concerns and helps us come up with solutions that work best for my son.

Best of luck to you!

[jdeesco]

I took resperdal for a few months, but it was given to me as a sleep aid.  I found it had fewer side effects than most bipolar meds.  Really, its not a good idea to just take people off bipolar medicine, so I'm curious as to why his doctor is taking him off without having something else in mind.  My sister was diagnosed when she was 12, she has gone off of her meds many times, and its very dangerous.  I was diagnosed at 17, I tried seroquel (NOT good) i would sleep for days and feel drowsy, i could not function.  Then I tried Abilify, low doses were ok, but once I got to 150mg I was tired all the time.  My sister took Depakote, which worked for her, but it requires blood testing, and she was on Welbutrin, but it made her tired all the time and she gained a decent amount of weight.  I have never been a fan of medications, but Bipolar Disorder is one of those things I feel needs to be treated with medication, I've seen the bad sides of it, but I was also misdiagnosed, I am actually ADD, so you sould look into psychological testing if you have not done so.  Hope this helps, and I hope you find the right thing for your son.

[margypops]

This is hard isnt it to se your son feeling like this my sympathys are with you, ask your prescribing Doctor if once he is weaned off the resperdal , if you can try leaving him without meds, a lot of caring parents are now trying using food supplements to help their children, and it has been noted that a Multiple Vitamin with B Complex and Vitamin C and also Fish oil is  benificial to children, if you google this there is a lot of information and look at the thread on this forum that starts "Fish oil" its a long thread with a lot of help from other parents going through something similar to you.Good Luck