Posted by JacquieJ on January 2, 2004, at 8:10:40
In reply to Re: risperdal for anxiety, posted by JLM on December 31, 2003, at 20:28:42
Risperdal can help some people with anxiety. And as far as off label uses, that is how MANY drugs get discovered for so many new uses (THANK GOD). My nephew had major problems with PTSD as well as anxiety after he came back from the Gulf War. The PC doc tried all kinds of antidepressant cocktails including xanax (highly addictive!) and none helped. He went to a Psych at the VA who fully informed him of what Risperdal's potential side effects were (weight gain, decreased libido, etc) but Stuart was willing to try ANYTHING short of suicide (which he had thoughts of). Risperdal added onto lexapro was the magic bullet. He has been on 1mg Risp and lexapro (celexa first and then switched) and he is a new person. I think we all need to be a little less accusing of drug companies these days...I agree that there are certainly abuses that take place-but I wouldn't want to go anywhere else in the WORLD for my health care. There is no "one drug fits all" in this world. I volunteer for NAMI and have seen time and time again patients who don't work on one agent and then are switched to another with great results. The brain is a mysterious thing and it is an art form to help heal it. Off label uses of drugs are miracles for many, so respectfully, I suggest unnecessarily alarming people into thinking their docs are intentionally harming them.
poster:JacquieJ
thread:109623
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031231/msgs/295663.html