How pdocs think about meds effectiveness vs side effects...

Since you're concerned about it being bad for your health, and some studies have suggested that it increases cancer risk, I would raise this issue again with your pdoc (T can't prescribe so personally I wouldn't discuss it with them, but you can if you want to) until they listen.

I think you are a few years younger than me JunkDNA, and babies only became really important to me a couple of years ago, so personally I would want to keep my options open fertility-wise. If you are fertile, you can choose whether to have kids or not, but if you're not fertile but later decide you want kids, then it will be more difficult. Also no one should hate you for not liking kids or not wanting kids, so don't worry about that. I really want kids, but I often worry that I would be a terrible mother and shouldn't have them for various reasons. Then there's the logistics of finding a guy I want to raise kids with... And even though I like the idea of kids of my own, other people's kids frequently irritate me. Thinking about possibly becoming a parent is complicated, so don't worry about rambling

*Willow*

Yeah risperidone is what caused it in me also...if you don't want to change APs I think you can just add abilify....

I think a lot of this has to do with the approach medicine takes. Doctor's are trained to treat disease. They don't seem to do a very job at practicing preventative medicine, until a disease is diagnosed.

Perhaps psychiatrists think the GP will address obesity and its complications.

Most psychiatrists don't even bother communicating with a patient's GP. Doctors should work together.

I was in a medical-psychiatric unit, where nurses actually had to use their medical skills, such as starting IVs and doing wound care, so this may have affected the response, I got, when I had a drug interaction.

The drug interaction, I had, caused low blood pressure. I could not get out of bed without feeling very faint. The attending was concerned and determined to find out why. My blood pressure was regularly checked. I had an ECG, which ruled out cardiac problems, and a blood test that checked my hemoglobin and iron levels, and vitamin deficiencies, which I passed. Eventually, it was determined to be caused by an interaction between a benzodiazepine and an anti-psychotic. After the benzodiazepine was discontinued and the anti-psychotic dose lowered, my blood pressure rose.

This experience scared me.

It can cause osteoporosis, a condition usually seen in post-menopausal women. It affects estrogen, a hormone that helps prevent the condition.

does abilify reverse the effects?

yep...not sure how commonly this is done though I just switched over to abilify alone when it happened---but the partial agonist activity of abilify on dopmaine supresses the prolactin effect. here is an article....

Normalization of Risperidone-Induced Hyperprolactinemia with the Addition of Aripiprazole

Weight gain has always been a deal breaker for me. I told my current pdoc upfront that if it causes weight gain I'm not going to take it(it's part of why I've been off and on so many meds in the past year or so that I've been on here, I'd gain weight and then tell me pdoc to get me the **** off whatever medication it was). I was on seroquel when I was a teen and I weighed well over 200 pounds(and I'm not tall, only 5'3"). It didn't matter how healthy I ate or how much I exercised, the weight never came off until I stopped the med. It sucked.

One of my main reasons for med noncompliance has been weight gain. Now I'm taking Latuda and now I'm actually LOSING weight on it which is a huge relief. I'm a very vain person and I despise how heavy I am right now. I'm doing everything I can to get the weight off(in a healthy way of course).

Wow! I am incredibly impressed! A lot of psych meds resulted in postural hypotension for me, but I just had to learn to cope with it e.g. get up from bed or a chair slowly so I didn't fall over. I still get it occasionally now and I'm not on anything :/

*Willow*