I’ve been on risperidol for almost 3 years. I went to my GP complaining about some excessive irritability and he prescribed risperidol which I took without any research. It helped me sleep so I continued. Since then I’ve experienced crippling depression, brain fog, derealization, what feels like lowered IQ, clumsiness and anxiety. I’ve lost everything, even my ability to work. I finally found a great Dr who outs helping me taper from this poison. I taper 5% every week and so far I haven’t experienced any physical withdrawal symptoms but the depression seems worse. I’m reaching out to find others who have experience with risperidol taper and have recovered. I’m desperate for success stories as I almost feel this drug has damaged my brain. My Dr assures me that I will certainly recover but I want some word from anyone who has first hand experience. Thank you!
Reported for forum change.
Moderator Action
Welcome to the SDMB, Kayann.
Medical advice questions (and advice questions in general) belong in our In My Humble Opinion forum. I will move the thread there for you.
As the forum name indicates, any responses you get there are just the opinions of some online folks and should not be considered the equivalent of professional medical advice.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
My son successfully tapered off of this drug. It might be worth talking to your doctor about a short-term prescription to manage the depression for a time, until the taper is completed and your body adjusts.
The depression may be a completely separate problem at this point in any case. You’ve certainly had a number of issues and you have cause to be depressed.
So, to answer your question, yes, it can be done. Hang in there, and talk to your doctor about ways of making it easier.
My son took it from age 16 to 18, approximately, then decided he wanted to go off it. About two days into that he saw an ad saying something like, “If you as a male have been damaged by this drug by growing breasts, call this law firm,” and he went crazy with the idea that someone would prescribe him a drug that might cause him to grow breasts, and never took another one. So much for tapering. And also we had to find a new therapist.
Ill effects: he became the same emotionally volatile kid he’d been before he went on it. I couldn’t really blame rapid tapering, because that’s why he went on it in the first place, and it helped. He also did get depressed and suicidal, but he got over it, thank goodness, but things were dicey for a couple of months. He did not immediately replace it with any other drug.
He did not report any side effects while using it, but after he went off it he said he felt much clearer, with less brain fog. But he did not complain about brain fog while he was on it.
The site CrazyMeds.com is a good resource for this kind of info. Here’s an article.
When searching that site, make sure you’re spelling the name of the drug exactly right (either brand name or generic). Their search engine isn’t very forgiving.