Risperdal - The Good, The Bad and The Funny. From People Who Have Taken These Crazy Meds...and SCIENCE!

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Risperdal Basics Risperdal Side Effects How To Take Risperdal How Risperdal Works & Compares with Other Meds Where to Buy Risperdal / Ratings

Comments: Risperdal (risperidone) is, milligram for milligram, the most potent of all the antipsychotics. It is also just the bomb when dealing with the combination of Asperger's and bipolar, or just Asperger's and other forms of autism alone. I weaned myself off of Risperdal (risperidone) and found out it was a very Bad Idea. Not even Strattera (atomoxetine) could keep me from being suicidally depressed after getting friended by a woman on the second date. Risperdal (risperidone) keeps the autistically exaggerated emotions in check, making the distorted, hyperbolic reactions of the Asperger's-bipolar combination less distorted and hyperbolic. It was only by adding Risperdal (risperidone) back into the cocktail that I started climbing out of the depression. Yes, part of that was the combination of antipsychotic and antidepressant, but part of it was Risperdal's toning down the exaggeration of feelings we autistic types have. Like all antipsychotics it makes Mouse severely depressed, but it is the only one she can tolerate in small doses, as required, when her autistically-exaggerated emotions or mania get out of hand. It sometimes makes her hear music in things like clothes dryers. There have been several studies done on Risperdal's effectiveness in controlling symptoms across the autistic spectrum, in both kids and adults¹ along with other antipsychotics, and Risperdal (risperidone) has tested the best. Not only that, Risperdal (risperidone) gets high marks for dealing with rage. Most everyone who can tolerate it finds it really does tone down or even eliminate the rage response from bipolar disorder and high-functioning autism. Of course there are also studies to back that up, for both children and adults. (See the How Risperdal Works & Compares with Other Meds for more details).

Although I've tasted far worse medications, the oral solution does taste like ass. Don't mix it with anything, as it'll just prolong the disgusting taste, cowboy up and swallow it as is if you're going that route. Of course, that could be my ultra-sensitive sense of taste in action.

Risperdal (risperidone) hits a lot of dopamine receptors along with histamine and serotonin receptors, so like Abilify (aripiprazole), it can be a coin toss as to whether or not it puts you to sleep or wakes you up. It's usually sedating, but not always. Again, refer to he How Risperdal Works & Compares with Other Meds for more details

Well, this just sucks. I've had to stop taking Risperdal (risperidone) because of Tardive Dyskinesia. It came on suddenly. One day Mouse noticed that my tongue seemed to be sticking out of my mouth more when I spoke certain words and that I had some minor facial tics that I wasn't aware of. The next day my tongue had a mind of its own, I was totally aware of facial tics without having to look in a mirror, and I was blinking like a cartoon owl. Lowering my dosage of Risperdal (risperidone) from 0.5mg a night to 0.25mg reduced the symptoms, but they still flared up now and then. Eventually I had to stop taking a very effective med. The TD is gone for the most part. I had a bit of a tic in my forehead for quite some time, but I'm a really poor metabolizer of meds, so the Risperdal (risperidone) may have hung around for a lot longer than usual. Plus tics are side effects of other meds I take, and once you get a side effect going like that, it'll just hang around if the other meds will make it easier to do so. Still, it didn't leave until I took Seroquel (quetiapine), which is often used to get rid of TD symptoms.

Did it freak me out? Of course it did! For about an hour. I knew what was going on, I knew how to deal with it. Fortunately I have the luxury of knowing how meds work and not having to leave my house for days at a time. So if something like this happens to you, go ahead and freak out! It's scary! And Christ on a crutch, to go out in public when that's happening to you on top of everything else you're dealing with? It's one thing when you're used to dealing with that sort of thing most of your life, but it's something else entirely when it's a brand new event in your life. While I personally don't give a shit about tics and blinking and my tongue going wacky on me when I'm trying to buy groceries, I'm not the rest of the world.

However many the positive effects of Risperdal (risperidone) are gone. First and foremost I had to live in bipolar 2 hell for over a few months, cycling through various stages of depression and mixed states. See my blog for details. I've also been way more autistic in bad ways lately. I was in a minor auto accident, nothing really to write about. Were I not such an autistic freak it would have been a matter of exchanging information and driving off. But I froze. My car had to be pushed out of traffic because I couldn't function. I couldn't talk. I can't deal with people. Selling my house and moving was really difficult my inability to deal with people and to deal with change. This lack of Risperdal (risperidone) was really, really sucking hard.

Eventually, though, I got over it. Coping skills, therapy, all that good stuff. While the discontinuation of Risperdal (risperidone) was painful in the usual way with atypical antipsychotics - a massive return of symptoms - in the long run I'm able to deal with stuff better in my life thanks to having taken Risperdal. So I'm a lot less of a jerk than I was before I took it, albeit more of a jerk than I was when I was on it. Sensory integration is weird again. But I'm much, much calmer.

Still, it was a very effective med for dealing with pesky hallucinations, and irrational thinking that plagued me back in 2002 when I was going batshit crazy. Although it didn't do squat for me for ultradian rapid cycling or intrusive thoughts until Topamax (topiramate) was added to my cocktail.

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Created Monday, November 10, 2003

Last updated Saturday, May 15, 2010

¹ McDougle CJ, et al. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1998 July;55(7): pages 633-41 "A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of risperidone in adults with autistic disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders.", for instance

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