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Risperdal/Risperidone --> antipsychotic

18142 Views 52 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  university girl, 
university girl
just started it... very low dose... 0.25 mg

anyone tried it? comments?

i will comment on how it goes for me. i'm also on paxil. been on it for 4 years now.
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university girl
Do I have psychotic symptoms? Well, I don't believe I am psychotic... how about that. Anti-psychotics are prescribed for those with general anxiety as well.

Hmmm... interesting posts. I am definately concerned about the weight issue as i just lost about 16 lb. AND, i have noticed a large increase in my hunger :( Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. Anyways, what I gain I can lose again. I've also been having feelings of paxil withdrawal (shocks) even though I havent' changed that dose. I've been having more nightmares too. What concerns me most though is that I've noticed I've been quite loopy these days. Anyone had this?

That's about all so far. It's too early in the game and my dose is rather low. I see my psychiatrist in a few days. I will update later.
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university girl
All right... Here's an update. Saw my psychiatrist today. I was up front with all of my thoughts. She is still going with a rare form of schizophrenia, but she won't say it's only this disorder because some of my sypmtoms overlap with other disorders. It seems like no two diagnoses I've received have been the same. But I guess that's what I have to deal with. So I've reluctantly agreed to increase my risperidol dose from 0.25 mg to 0.50 mg. I'm scared but I guess I will do it. 0.5 mg is still a minute quantity. I have no further side effects to report and those which I did speak of previously still remain. Hopefully they will not linger.
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university girl
Thanks NODID. I will take a look at these papers. I am more paranoid now but also more informed. :D

Today is a bad day and I attribute it mostly to the risperdal. I feel like I am drunk and keep falling over. I get car sick much easier too.
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university girl
DutchMark said:
I Don't think durg-induced DP has anything to do with HPPD. And it's definatly not a vision disorder
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DutchMark... I disagree. I feel visual DR is a vision disorder. How could it not be? My DR is the same DR that existed while I was high. I think HPPD and the visual disturbances reported by those with DP or DR are very similar.
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university girl
DutchMark said:
Did you had you're first DP moment combined with an anxiety attack? cause that's what happened to me I and certanly don't have HPPD. I know a person myself with this disorder and its far different of what I'm suffering of. He realy can't stare at objects longer than 3 seconds before they melt away right in front of him. HPPD is a far more vision related disorder then DP is. after all dp is still an anxiety product, HPPD is not anxiety related at all
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I had no anxiety during the onset of my DP. Anxiety is not required (read Daphne Simeon's latest DP article). An interesting note... sometimes there is no known cause for the onset of DP- it just happens. I have never had a panic attack.
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university girl
Almost two weeks on 0.25 mgs. Bad side effects (feeling drunk) seem to have subsided. No weight gain to report. No improvement of symptoms. If only there was a drug shown to significantly decrease dissociative symptoms... :(
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university girl
Ok so now I've gained about 5 lb :x and it seems as though my social anxiety is actually worse. I feel more stupid too. :? As both Risperdal and Paxil act on serotonin, I wonder if the Risperdal is counteracting the Paxil. It is not known how Risperdal actually works. Gonna ask a pharmacist if Risperdal can counteract Paxil. It makes sense to me that that is what has happened because when I first started the antipsychotic, I was getting the shocks I only get when I decrease my Paxil dose. I'm also have muscle tension in my jaw/can't figure out how to hold my mouth... something which I haven't had in years.
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university girl
I cut back my medication after having serious problems trying to think. I couldn't plan. I was scared. Also, my social anxiety was sky high- it hadn't been that bad in over 4 years. After halfing my dose, those symptoms disappeared and I returned to my 'pre-risperdol' self.
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university girl
ok so my doc convinced me to try again. i've upped my dose to 0.50 mg again. hopefully i can prove to her my probs were due to the drug and not to anxiety.
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university girl
No probs this time at 0.5 mg so upped it to 0.75 mg. Will report back in a few weeks.
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university girl
Supergrass,

What dose did you go up to and how did it affect you?
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university girl
I'm now on 1 mg. We are slowly upping the dose. The regular therapeutic dose is 2 - 16 mg so I have a bit of a ways to go. Allure, I don't notice anything positive yet. I am worried it is making thinking more difficult. I feel I am getting stuck mid-sentance more often and my thoughts feel choppy. It's hard to be patient with this. I'm scared.
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university girl
June 6th

OK so I've noticed this drug really affects my thinking. Supposedly this is a side effect and will disappear. I'm going to gamble and up my dose from 1 mg to 1.5 mg. Wish me luck- I'm quite scared. Will update again soon. Oh, and btw, my doc wants to try all of the four main antipsychotics prior to trying lamotrigine. I am still trying to save for a SPECT scan at the Amen Clinic.
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university girl
Hey Monkeydust,

Thanks for your input. I will think about trying to persuade my doc to try me on lamotrigine prior to trying all of the antipsychotics. This is so frustrating. I just want a SPECT scan but it is way too pricey and my doc doesn't believe in their accuracy.
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university girl
It's not so easy to get a new doc and my doc does really want me to get better. As for the SPECT scan, you can check it out at http://www.amenclinic.com What the scan will do is detect which parts of my brain are not functioning optimally. This may contribute to a more accurate diagnosis. As well, it will point me in hopefully the right direction med wise. If the scans weren't so pricey I would have had one eons ago. If only I were rich I may have a second chance at life.

Monkeydust said:
Like rainboteers said, I'd seriously consider getting new Doctors.

I don't know your full situation, of course, but from what I gather you seem to say that your doctors think you have some rare form of schizophrenia. Whether or not that is the case, it seems that, given your symptoms, it's hard to be certain about the matter - there should at least be enough doubt, I think, for them to think that if one or two antipsychotics aren't working then it's a "blind alley" treatment-wise.

As for the SPECT scan, what is it that you need it for, specifically? Will it confirm your diagnosis? Or is it only useful in detecting physiological problems?
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university girl
Hey guys:

There are a few of my symptoms which made my psych want to try antipsychotics.

When I first got sick, sometimes I would question whether or not I had said something or just thought it because when I did speak, it was like each word I said quickly disappeared from my conscience, as though I had never said it. This made me wonder if people could hear my thoughts but knew they couldn't. Also, my thoughts have gotten so much louder. This also led me to wonder if my thoughts could be heard. I know, it's weird. I never really believed my thoughts could be heard though. Also, about 10 days after smoking that last joint, I may have gone through a rather paranoid episode. I was dating a boy at the time that the older girls in the school wanted to date. I broke up with him because I believed they were going to beat me up for dating him. Whether or not this was true, I'm not sure to this day. I just know I felt very threatened by it and my social anxiety raged at this time. I have all of the other typical DP symptoms as you know as well as time lapses. I also have social withdrawal and am much more disorganized than I was before getting sick.

If risperdal can help me feel more motivated, more social, less confused, less overstimulated, less DP'd, less DR'd, less tired, less "drunk", then it's worth giving it a shot I believe. My frontal lobe shows slight shrinkage and one of my ventricles in my brain is slightly enlarged. I've been told this is typical of schizophrenics. Supposedly risperdal increases blood flow to the prefrontal cortex. Sounds like that would benefit me.

I, personally, am not convinced I suffer from a rare form of schizo though I can see where my psych is coming from with this. If I was a psych I would give antipsychotics a try for me as well but would also try lamotrigine.

How is the risperdal going for me? Not so well at all. Each time I increase it even a little I get jaw tension and confused thinking. If I back off on it those side effects go away. I can then up it again and not have the side effects return. This is a VERY slow process. I've been trying it for 6 months, SIX MONTHS now and am still on a very low dose. I am losing hope. I am on 1 mg as of today and need to be somewhere around 2 mg. Hmmm... so it will take me another half year to get to 2 mg? That really sucks. So I may end up waiting a year to find out it doesn't help me. Seems so wrong, doesn't it?
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university girl
The images on my face in my avatar are painted on. Imagine if it was a tatoo. I am aware that docs frequently look at appearance when trying to determine how one is feeling. It's happened to me before. I think my psych is pretty good with that though.

Well, I feel I have given risperdal a good try. I was up to 1 mg for one month but decreased my dose after having both jaw tension and problems thinking. These symptoms persisted the entire month at 1 mg. They have both improved since dropping the dose down to near nothing. Today I picked up my first perscription of seroquel. Here goes antipsychotic trial #2. I have started a new thread on this. Check it out. Again, I will keep updating it.
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university girl
Check out the NODID site for upcoming results of the online survey. The results will show the usefulness of using antipsychotics for DPD.
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