So I had a seemingly uncaring pdr who didn’t seem to care that I was having extreme side effects that were interrupting my life at work and making it to the point I wasn’t sure I could work anymore. These side effects included uncontrollable movements, anxiety, weight gain,depression and panic attacks. Instead of taking me off the RisperDONE I was on he kept adding more medicine and was doing nothing about the uncontrollable movements. One day after talking to my mom again about my problems I got the idea of finding a new pdr and she agreed it would be for the best to at least give someone new a try. I went online and looked up pdrs around me and found one that wasn’t very far away and gave him a call. Lucky me. I got in the very next day! I saw him and he asked me lots of questions that my first pdr never asked and took lots of notes. After he got done listening he suggested slowly decreasing the RisperDONE and slowly adding in a medicine that only came onto the market in 2015 called Rexulti. So far, I’m at the end of week one and already I feel better! My only complaint that I have now is I have been sleeping restlessly.
Rexulti is a lot like abilify in that it is stimulating. It may disrupt your sleep a bit. Give it time to see if that settles down.
I am on risperidone and experiencing side effects like akathisia and agitation when I hit the 3mg mark - Im on 2.25 mg currently.
What concerns me is that my FSH levels are elevated a bit - this could indicate a pituatary tumor, which Risperdal causes from time to time.
At the very least, it seems that the Risperdal is causing a Hormonal imbalance, involving Higher Prolactin and FSH - LH levels.
Both my family doctor and Psychiatrist seem unphased by this - My pdoc wants me on the Risperdal, no matter what.
I guess she feels that it is keeping me stable and this is good enough for her, but I am concerned that my Hormone imbalances are harming me - I really dont know what to do.
I guess I can push going onto another Antipsychotic but Ill be trading one set of side effects for another set of different side effects.
Im going to talk to her again about what to do, Im not comfortable knowing that my Hormones are out of whack due to the risperidone use.
Maybe Im overthinking things and worrying over nothing - but something does not feel right.
I say go with your gut feeling. I find that they keep me safe a lot of the time.
Good luck with your new pdoc and med change @Twialine - things can work out just fine.