Posted by Katefan0 on February 16, 2005, at 9:35:13
In reply to Re: Risperdal for anxiety?, posted by banga on February 16, 2005, at 1:03:03
Banga,
Thank you, too, for your answer. Do you take risperdal every day or only as-needed? She has ativan that she takes for days when she is feeling particularly "jittery" but she does not need it much. She's gotten to the point where she doesn't have these hypochondriac episodes too often, but once she does it's hard for her to get back to an even keel, sometimes weeks or a month... does that make sense? Once she has it in her head that her chest pain = heart attack, she can hardly shake it even when the doctor told her she just has acid reflux. Then she'll take the ativan, and it's mildly helpful but doesn't get rid of the obsessive thoughts of being afraid of dying.
Well her doc Rx'ed her 1mg daily of risperdal. That seems like a pretty low dose although definitely not the lowest (I have seen as low as .25mg or .50 mg/day). Probably she would not have problems with it at that low a dose...
Although I have seen stuff online that says that certain kinds of symptoms exhibited under SSRI's are indicative of the potential for problems under risperdal -- called extra-pyramidal side effects... and she has some of them just from SSRI's, but I think they're very common ones (mildly shaking hands, restless legs espcially at night).
Anyway, we talked about it last night and I showed her all the information about risperdal especially the stuff about tardive dyskinesia and she was not at all interested in taking it.
So now I'm looking for suggestions for what else has worked for people, because I'm sure she is going to have to suggest something else to her psychiatrist.
Thanks again for listening, and for all the suggestions...
Kate.
> I was given risperdal when at the hospital, to augment Lexapro. It definitely got rid of anxiety and obsessive ruminations for me. I was leery of using an AP for anxiety, but for me it does the trick, quickly. I have used geodon and abilify for this purpose too. Within two days on my mood chart you see both my depression and anxiety go down. For me, it is a quick fix, I hope to not take them long term. I do get some mild side effects with them, and they make me feel sort of foggy brained. I am still exploring other options for anxiety--possibly Luvox, a less popular SSRI. In the meantime I stay on a very low dose of Abilify.
>
> A good drug for obsessive ruminations in my mind is Anafranil. It is an older tricyclic, but I for one like them better than average than SSRIs. The only side effect I had was some weight gain (but nothing like I had with Paxil); the one side effects some have complained of is that for people with somewhat low blood pressure, it can make you dizzy. I would be on it if it hadn't stopped working....
> Good luck.
poster:Katefan0
thread:458358
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050212/msgs/458693.html