This new study was testing Schizophrenia drugs, which many know are being used on children with autism. In fact, my younger son Matthew started on Risperdal and when the side effects arose, we went to Geodon, which he still takes - a low dosage.

Here is the article on Risperdal, Geodon, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Clozaril.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060401/ap_on_he_me/schizophrenia_drugs

This is exactly the situation families with someone on the Spectrum face -

"Researchers explored a common situation in schizophrenia treatment: If the first drug a patient tries fails to control symptoms adequately, what drug should be tried next?

When patients in that situation were randomly assigned a second drug in the new study, Clozaril emerged as more effective than Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa, said lead author Dr. Joseph McEvoy of the Duke University Medical Center."

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I am not familiar with Clozaril and will have to do some research to find out more.

Anyone have a family member on this med?

Michael was just the opposite- he started on Geodon, had terrible heart palpitations, so was switched over to Risperdal. He also takes Adderall XR.

My son has been on Risperdol for a little more than a month now and is doing wonderfully. Learned to wave good-bye, and to high 5! He just seems more into our world now instead of "Shawns world" Again, I'm not sure it is from the meds, but if not, then it's quite a coincidence. We still face a bunch of other problems with him but for now, it is better!

That is good news on the Risperdal. I remember the first day Matthew had a solid bowel movement and that only happens once in awhile - well I can count on my hand how many times!

Use caution when they want to increase the dosage, that is when we saw side effects.

Do you use the oral solution?

My son has been on Risperdal for about 1.6 years and is doing well. Although we are very careful in watching for the side effects and getting his blood tested every few months to make sure his levels are not toxic. We were on the liquid form but just switched to the pill form last refill. The syring we used was not the best form of measuring and we had ran out a bit early prior to switching to pill form. Since my son can <img src="/images/graemlins/music.gif" alt="" /> swallow pills great this was not a problem. He also gets adderall XR time release capsules. <img src="/images/graemlins/music.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />