What has been your experience on Risperdal

[Mindful Momma]

my pdoc mentioned risperdal to me but i'm scared of possible weight gain. what has been your experience on this medication? did it help with depressive cycles more than manic episodes? or visa versa? did you gain a lot of weight, a little weight or none at all? did you feel better? overall do you like the drug? did it give you insomnia, etc?

any help would be appreciated.

thanks!

[Guest guest]

I like my Risperdal. It works well for me and really helps calm my mind so I can sleep. I have not really gained any weight from it, but I eat healthy and work out. Good luck to you.

[Michael]

I was prescribed Risperdal for paranoia and social phobia. I took it for 2 1/2 years at 2mg/day. I went from 240 lbs to 297. It was the first time in my life I have ever been fat (I'm very tall so I was still thin at 240).

I recently lost over 40 lbs and am down to 255 now after stopping the Risperdal and going to the gym nearly every day over the summer. I'm at the point now where I don't need the Risperdal anymore.

Unfortunately, I still feel emotionless/humanless from the medication. I don't know if I will ever feel like myself again. Nobody told me of any of the side effects when I started it, they just said it would "help me think clearer."

[Velvet Elvis]

I didn't gain any weight on it but it did drop my IQ by a few points. I was in school at the time so that was unacceptable.

If you're trying to deal with depression, your best bet will be an antidepressant. Looking at the list of meds you've been on, the only ADs I see are SSRIs. That still leaves a lot of stuff to try.

Wellbutrin helps with ADD and depression and is fairly bp-safe. Effexor and cymbalta are also worth a shot.

[silentium]

my pdoc mentioned risperdal to me but i'm scared of possible weight gain. what has been your experience on this medication? did it help with depressive cycles more than manic episodes? or visa versa? did you gain a lot of weight, a little weight or none at all? did you feel better? overall do you like the drug? did it give you insomnia, etc?

any help would be appreciated.

thanks!

It helped me sleep but it also neutered me because it raises prolactin levels ? Zyprexa also helped me sleep without that problem.

I'm a bit like Michael, it's hard to describe or verify what this class of pill does to me but they may me making me emotionally numb, or it might be my illness, I don't know. It just seems like I can't listen to a good piece of music and feel that tingle down my spine. Stuff like that, shit people take for granted.

So as long as I'm sleeping I can afford to give tapering a good trial but I know when to increase my dose back if I have to.

[Mindful Momma]

I didn't gain any weight on it but it did drop my IQ by a few points. I was in school at the time so that was unacceptable.

If you're trying to deal with depression, your best bet will be an antidepressant. Looking at the list of meds you've been on, the only ADs I see are SSRIs. That still leaves a lot of stuff to try.

Wellbutrin helps with ADD and depression and is fairly bp-safe. Effexor and cymbalta are also worth a shot.

wellbutrin is out because it is known to cause seizures and i am prone to them. and i am on the maximum dosage of effexor already. we tried to switch anti depressants at one point and i completely lost it so we are stuck with effexor.

and it's not just depression i am trying to deal with, sure that's the state i am in now but it's the cycles i am trying to get under control.

[Mindful Momma]

It helped me sleep but it also neutered me because it raises prolactin levels ? Zyprexa also helped me sleep without that problem.

temporarily or permanently???

[Velvet Elvis]

It goes away once you discontinue it. Occasionally it does cause lactation in females (and in freak cases males) but in the majority of cases does not. I can't look it up at the moment but I'm pretty sure it's less than 5% of the time.

Invega is a new Risperdal-derived drug that has a better side-effect profile. If Risp. turns out to work really well but has intolerable side effects, it would be worth a try.

[papertrees]

I felt emotionally numb at 4mg a day. I also hypersalivated. The first day I took it, I fainted. I also had orthostatic hypotension on it. But overall, it was a good med for me. it calmed me down and helped me sleep. I didn't gain any weight on a combination of risperdal and lithium, in fact I lost weight on it. I wasn't able to think very clearly though. But my psychosis abated, put to stop. It's good med that you should consider. But I wouldn't recommend starting at 4mg. It's too high a dose unless you're flipping out.

[MaryPoppins]

I was on Risperdal for many years and it worked great for me. I would take it at bedtime and it would kind of lull me to sleep. I thought fairly clearly on it, but I did lactate eventually from it, which was a bummer. After a few years on it my doc wanted me off of it and I wanted off of it because I was convinced it wasn't working anymore, but when I went off of it I went off the deep end, so clearly it was doing something, and I've now spent the last year figuring out how to find a decent cocktail to keep me out of the hospital. Risperdal was an awesome drug for me, like I said, for many years. And I did not gain any weight.

[Mindful Momma]

did any of you experience acne as a side effect? it is one of the listed effects, so i was just curious.

thanks.

[papertrees]

Nope, no acne. But then again, I've always had clear skin all my life and even lithium didn't give me acne...