Resperidone for Delusional Psychosis

Hi all,

I am looking for some reassurance regarding my brother's treatment. He has deep psychosis in the form of paranoid delusions (for years he has believed that private detectives have been following him). A month ago he was sectioned (level 2) due to being deemed a risk to others. Initially he refused to take medication and was eventually moved on to a Section 3, so essentially he had no choice and is now taking the meds against his wishes. I visited him yesterday (two weeks in to his treatment) and was shocked to see how the drugs have changed him (He is taking Resperidone). He was completely lacking in emotion, had mild shaking and slurred speech. He was also holding his hands out at his sides as though sitting in an armchair, he continued to do this while standing and walking about. He say's he is finding it hard to concentrate and feels mentally sluggish and weak. Unfortunately he is still adamant that there is nothing wrong with him. I do not try to convince him otherwise, I just listen mostly to what he has to say and neither agree or disagree. The doctors are apparently planning to double the dosage of this drug and as you can imagine I am quite concerned at this. I simply cannot see how pumping him full of drugs is ever going to make him come around. Can you please explain to me how anti-psychotics are supposed to convince a person that the thoughts in one's head are delusions? Because so far to me it just seems to me they are just turning my brother in to a zombie.

I'm sorry that you're in this difficult situation

I don't know that they convince someone that the delusions are no longer true, I think it's more that the antipsychotics make you not care so much so you don't have the emotional response and then eventually lose that feeling of conviction to those thoughts. That's if the med works that is. That's just my thoughts from my experience with the meds.

It must be terrible to see your brother so sedated like that You must continue to advocate for your brother though and try to stop these doctors from overmedicating him. Otherwise as soon as he's able to stop the meds he will (because being zombie-fied is so unpleasant), and likely relapse due to rapid withdrawal.

All the best,

*Willow*

Gordian Mind: Thank you for being so supportive of your brother. It is unfortunate that he is so affected by the antipsychotics. I agree with Willow in her above statement that they do not take the delusions away, most times. They just do a heavy sedation and cause a whole bunch of side effects. I hope they do not increase the dosage and maybe things will slowly improve for him. I believe that recovery is possible without heavy medications, but being sectioned seems to take away the choice. Willow is also right that if we are too medicated at first, if we are forced, we are likely to not comply with meds which sets us up for almost instant relapse. I hope that you can have a good dialogue with his doctor and let them know about your concerns.
It is good that you don't engage in a debate with him about his beliefs.

Please continue your support of him and thank you again. Best of luck to you.

I'm on risperidone 1mg for delusions and hallucinations and it zonks me out. My mind is always kind of fuzzy. If I take more than 1mg I'm like a zombie. I feel exhausted.

He might need time to get used to the dosage? It took a bit to get me more focused. But he might also be on too high. I'm not a doctor I don't know.

All I know is that I always get to thinking I hate it making my mind fuzzy so I stop taking it and then I think they're after me again or moon creatures are abducting cats or I'm a cyborg or hair dye is full of microbots that get into your brain.

I am on 4mg of risperidone and have no side effects that I can notice. I don't get sleepy either, nor does my mind get sluggish. It seems to work perfectly for me. It takes away hallucinations and delusions, and seems to keep my feet on the ground. I'm happy to say it works wonders for me!

I'm on risperidone 0.75mg and it takes away most of the delusions. I don't think about them as much and when I do I don't panic and become paranoid. I still hear music every so often, but it isn't deafening like it used to be. I always feel tired so I didn't notice too much of a difference. Your brother might need more time to adjust to his dosage or it's possible it could be too high of a dose. Meds affect everyone differently so none of us could tell you the exact answer.

Thank you all so much for your replies and kind support. I think I can see now how the drugs work, whereby the sedation makes the delusions seem less important. I just hope that they don't have the dosage too high as you suggest, so I will try to get some dialogue going with the docs because at the moment we have been given zero information from them about the in's and out's of the medication treatment. All the information I have is that which my brother told me, he said he is being given 3mg of Risperidone and that they intend to double the dose as soon as he get's used to the symptoms, but he say's that he is going to fake not being used to them to avoid this happening.

We as a family feel quite lost and in the dark over the whole situation at the moment. His symptoms have been prevalent for many years now but it is only recently that they came to a head where he confronted somebody in the street and accused them of following him, he also got in my mother's face one night when she tried to tell him it was all in his head, which led to his sectioning. He is currently blaming both my parents for putting him in the hospital and has refused to speak to them since being admitted. He say's that when he get's out he will not be coming home, which really scares me to think what might happen to him when the 6 months is up.

Currently I am the only person he trusts and I have driven miles to see him every weekend since his admission. I am really upset and worried by the whole situation. My brother is my best friend and it is difficult to get my head around how the future is going to pan out for him. I had assumed that he would be in the safest hands with the doctors but now I am quite concerned that they may try to over-medicate him because he has always been an extremely stubborn person and I cannot see him admitting to being delusional.

Thank you all again, it really means a lot to hear your thoughts.

im on resperidone and it helps me. well..... it helps me with my hallucinations but not my delusions. i have never had the zombie effect on it like i did other meds, but i guess its different for everyone. i think its great ur so supportive for ur brother and ive been where hes at before, it can be very confusing. i would definitely let the docs know how u feel and maybe they can shed a little light on where they r going with this. sometimes docs r good and r actually trying to help u and then sometimes they r just trying to pump u full of drugs so they dont have to deal with u anymore. i hope it all works out and keep us posted. hug

Thank you so much, it really is good to hear from others who have been in the same boat.

My mother tried to phone the nurse at the hospital to discuss the treatment but they said due to patient confidentiality that they had to have my brother's permission to share details. He refused this due to the fact that he is still blaming her for getting him sectioned. I have since decided that I will take control of the situation myself because we are close and I know he would trust me to ask the questions, so I am putting together a list of my concerns for the nurse.

Since my last post my brother told me that they had deemed him as having gotten used to the symptoms of Resperidone so they have now moved him on to 6mg. It turns out that his psychotherapist was actually on holiday while this was happening and since returning he has insisted that the dose will go no higher, so that is one weight off my mind! Another blessing we have is that he is being treated in a part-privatized hospital of good repute, so hopefully there won't be too much negligence in the level of care.

I'm going up to visit again on Saturday so I'll keep you posted of developments.

Thanks again, I wish you well with your illness