7yr old on Risperidone?

Just looking for some opinions and advice here. My daughter saw a psychiatrist yesterday for an assessment and he said that as he focuses on the meds side of things what he would recommend for her is to try risperidone. She is violent, has major boundry and general behavioural issues , and loads of other problems. If we were to go down the 'drug' route with her he wants to try something that will calm her down. He is NOT pushing these meds on us; in fact he doesn't mind if I say yes or no- he just 'laid everything on the table', and took on board what I most wanted which is for regular psychological input. She is on no other meds at all. Please, feel free to pass on any opinion you may have at all re. this. I want to make an 'informed' decision, and I want to do what is best for her. I know nothing about using psychiatric meds in cihldren esp as young as 7, and I know nothing about risperidone other that what I read briefly. Thanks in advance for any replys

Is she being seen by a child psychologist? Personally I'd go that route first. After a few months with a good therapist - you 2 could make the decision regarding meds together. That way you would be getting some advice from a professional who really knows your child well. If behavior based therapy does not work....then maybe maybe maybe may I'd think about medication.

Best of luck, em

please find out what side efects this med might have a child this young,
my son was given it when he was younger, he is now 15 to help him sleep i thought it was a wonder drug, bearing in mind he is adhd he was on this solid for 3mths at 1mg a night, like i said i thought it was a wonder drug after battling for all his life for good nights sleep, when he seen the doc after this short time i was told he couldnt carry on taking it for long term as of the side effects could effect him when he is older, since then he has been allowed them if and when i get desperate for him to sleep,
daughter who is 22 has diferant medical issues, being add and behavioural and learning difficulties, she is taking this med as a mood stabilezer at 1mg in morning and 2mg at night since being on the med she has put on a lot of weight some of it down to the med some of it down to she will eat anything, again i would advise you to look into all side effects before you make your decission goood luck

My 25 year old son is on this med. I remember talking to my T about it and he said they use it in children as well. What about regular therapy for her? I remember when my kids were little, my husband and I went for coaching to a chld psych on how to manage a difficlt child. He helped us tremendously in normalizing and managing daily routines & troublesome behaviors.

Emily, Katheryn, sister. Thanks for the replys. Chloe is not currently seeing any sort of therapist (not by our choice; just circumstances), but as I said, I told the psychiatrist that my biggest wish is for her to receive regular psychological input. The Child Adol and Family Team (CAFS) have an intake meeting Monday week where they will discuss Chloe and see if she 'qualifies' for their services (*roll eyes*). The reason for this referral was because of her sleep (or lack of) issues, not even because of her behaviours (she was declined their services 2 yrs ago!!). So if this drug does help with sleep well... AND with weight gain?! (She is severely underweight, classed as a 'failure-to-thrive' child who weighs about the same as a 3-4yr old). I can see lots of benefits to risperidone already, but am going to wait as long as possible (at least until both the intake meeting and some other assessments) before I give my answer.

i belive you are saying that your daughter doesnt sleep well, do you think this is why your having problems daytime with her, son would suffer parionia at night time imaging all sorts and also suffered quite bad with growing pains, i do notice if he doesnt get enough sleep he is impossible even with his adhd meds, there are other side effects to Risperidone im not sure of all the facts but i know when its given to the elderly it can make them go of there legs seen this while working with the eldely, so finding out as much as you can before you decide is the for the best , we were the one of the first to use ritilin in britain on daughter when she was about 7 it took me nearly a month to decide and all i had wa a piece of paper from inside the tablets, wish we had the internet back then, you can find out so much again good luck in your decision and your up comming meeting

I don't know if this is still an issue for you or not, but I would suggest working with a pediatric behavrioral pychologist first before trying meds. My son had severe behavior problems and he was around 4 yrs old when we started the assessments to find out what was wrong and what could we do to help. He is 13 now and is doing great.

There certainly were lots of times that I wished there was a magic pill that would make everything all better and if there was such a pill I would have paid anything to get it. But meds were not recommended by several professionals. As parents we could have pushed for meds, several of the professionals offered to write scripts if we really wanted but did not strongly recommend. So we didn't. And years later, I'm glad we stuck it out.

The pychologist has helped my son learn to manage his own behaviors and reactions. Sometimes meds are useful to allow a child to be able to participate in therapy, but the overall goal is for the child to learn how to control themselves.

Best of luck - ask lots of questions of the professionals involved, there often isn't a lot of "clear" answers. You will probably have to make a decision based upon all you have learned and will have to go with your "gut" feelings.

thanks peanuts.
I saw her paediatrician and we decided that trialling some form of sleeping med would be best. Melatonin (only available on script here) was my 1st choice but waaaaaaaay too expensive for me until I got all the paperwork sorted. So we are giving Vallergen a go (like phenergan; an antihistamine). It is working really well, only using the smallest dose and even at that I have gone to only giving it to her every 2nd day- she gets so tired! She has even slept 12hrs a couple of nights . Hre grandfather was staying with us last week and said that her behaviour was so much better than that of her 3yo sister...lol! We have been waiting to get her into therapy- any sort but esp behavioural therapy- for over a yr; looks like it may happen early next year...
Thanks again,
irish.

what is going on with her? is she being / has she been sexually abused? physically abused? are kids bullying her in school? she sounds DISTRESSED and i'm not sure what medication is going to do except sedate her.

i'd be really concerned indeed about the long term consequences of anti-psychotics on the developing brain. there is some stuff about how they may cause tardive dyskinesias (movement disorder with tics and twitches) and tardive dementias (cognitive degeneration) and i'm sure that is only worse on the developing brain. there is a reason they are called 'minor tranquillisers' methinks.

I'm sorry- I wrote all about her 'symptoms' that I left out the fact that she had both a stroke and a brain injury as an infant. As with most sufferers of a brain injury, behaviour is very much affected. Add to that all the trauma she has faced in her 7 short years- 2x open heart surgery, a tracheostomy, 70-80 general anaesthetics, numerous hospitalisations, 10 houses she has lived in while at home not to countthe various caregivers she has been with- 1 for 18 months, the death of her brother, her dad and me splitting (very acrimonious until recently), me in hospital for 4 months a couple of years ago, something like 1000km away from her etc etc etc. So she has been thru far too much already. She has also had sleep issues since the day she was born!!! At least she is now getting a decent amount of sleep, as well as getting to sleep very quickly. That is helping the mood out a lot. Thanks to all for your advice and thoughts. Roll on psychological input for her. Until then I will make the most of my slightly quieter girl for a while!

glad that you are finding the risperdone helping your daughter get a disant amount of sleep sorry it took all her short life to find something that worked, sorry you both have been through so much
((((((((((((((((irishsj and daughter )))))))))))))))))))))))))

wow.

sounds like she has had a pretty hard life thus far (you too). i'm glad that the medications seem to be helping the both of you out. it can take a while to access psychological services sometimes... hang in there.

be very careful with risperidone. very careful. research in full on the side effects, so you know what to watch for if it shows up in her. if you see side effects, get back with the doctor. i recuse myself with my views because i had such bad experiences with antipsychotics i was prescribed, including risperidone. tardive dyskinesia can become permanent if she's on it too long. i cannot hate it because it does help some people, and kids i guess. i just hate for her to go through what i experienced. i was prescribed antipsychotics for my post-traumatic stress disorder. from what you wrote about what she went through, definitely get her into therapy. there's no question that she's affected by what she went through. i wish you and your daughter the best. i really do.

thanks guys for all the feedback. The good news is that I have decided not to go down the risperidone route for her. She is on Vallergan- the min dose every night and has gone from barely 8 hours of sleep a night (a good night) to consistently sleeping for at least 10 hours a night. She is coping much better at school (this is also combined with new strategies to deal with her behaviours), although the home front is a different story! Her support worker is also trying to put in an urgent referal for some psychological input, this time from hers and the schools perspective with what they have seen. So all in all I am thrilled that risperidone is no longer an option, and that she is sleeping so well every night. It sure makes a difference

First off, I'm not a doctor, but I know a good deal about meds.

Risperidone really doesn't do anything to help with sleep. In fact, I believe it can cause insomnia. It's used in children to to treat irritability and general disruptive behaviors.

Melatonin is a great choice as a sleep aid. It's naturally made in the human body (albeit at lower doses). It's non-addictive as well. It has few side effects, but if the child takes too much, she could be sleepy the next day. It's cheap in the U.S. and available without prescription. Did you ever try a lower dose? Some people don't respond well at any dose though, and they are always sleepy the next day.

Major boundary issues, severe trauma, sleep issues, and behavioral problems? Is the child overly involved with the parents or totally disinterested?

Reactive Attachment Disorder is fairly uncommon, but it's frequency is greatly increased in situations with major childhood trauma. (Especially switching caregivers) Children with RAD often suffer from sleep problems. It's not a primary symptom of the disorder, but a common associated symptom. They always have boundary issues as well. This is often behind many of their behaviors. I would check with a trained psychiatrist to make sure your child doesn't have RAD. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactiv...hment_disorder

IMHO, RAD is an environmental problem which doesn't respond well to medication.