My son has been diagnosed with resperdal,ne is 24 yrs. old. Does it help? Or are the side effects great to make the situation worse?

When my daughter was first diagnosed and hospitalized the Risperdal did wonders for her in the sense of taking care of her irritability, argumentiveness, anger, and general hypomania so much so that she was finally able to be reasoned with. I see it as the med that opened the windows to her accepting treatment and getting better. Unfortunately her prolactin levels went up (which is a low occurrence) and she started lactating!!:eek: So we were switched to Seroquel and she is doing great on that in combination with Lamictal. With this combination we finally are seeing stability and she is doing so much better.

I hope that you have similar results with your son. There is no cure for Bipolar, just like the diabetic must take insulin for the rest of their lives so must somebody with Bipolar take their meds. That is the good news....it IS a treatable condition and with the right meds your son and my daughter will lead happy productive lives. The key is finding the right meds and staying on them.

Please be patient....it will take time since with Bipolar it isn't a "one med fits all" situation.....it takes time, sometimes a year or two to find the right meds so don't give up....the more your son & you learn about Bipolar, the meds and work with the doctor to find the ones that work out best, the quicker he will reach stability.

Knowledge is power so encourage your son to learn all that he can about Bipolar. Do so yourself as his support system. There is an organization called NAMI....look for them and see if they have a location close to you and call them to see what resources are available to your son and you. They have a wonderful program called Famiy to Family that is great for those of us who have a loved one with mental illness.

Keep on coming here for support....there are so many who have BP and/or have a loved one who has it who will be more than happy to share their experience with you.

((((HUGS)))) ~ Goody:angel: :wave:

With Risperdol the results that I have seen that it calms him down ,very few anger moments,able to concentrate better and racing thoughts have stopped. He does take it before he goes to bed as it does make him sleep. As for side effects there may be many but he complaints about eye pain and then uses eye drops and sore muscles and then uses arcnia cream.So it is hard to win when dealing with Bipolar.He tried Lithium does it did not work well for him. Whether these are the actual side effects I do not know. Until he gets immune to the Risperdol it is the one that makes life bearable as I can't take the outrage disorganized behaviour.There is no cure for it as the brain needs this certain chemical that the body suppose to continue producing all your life but has stopped.