Posted by med_empowered on December 10, 2005, at 0:38:45
In reply to Re: Is 1mg of Risperdal a high dose ? » Tepiaca, posted by Cairo on December 9, 2005, at 23:46:33
Good point, Phillipa...if Abilify is an option, and you and your doc agree that a neuroleptic might be useful, perhaps you should pursue that. Part of the problem is that Risperdal is high-potency, like Haldol, so seeming minor dosage increases or decreases can have a major impact on how the drug makes you feel. Also, Risperdal is pretty rough, compared to the other atypicals; I think of Risperdal as a half-way point on the continuum between Haldol and better drugs, such as Abilify.
Abilify tends to be non-sedating, especially in lower-doses, and may actually be activating. Some people report a start-up anxiety (there also seems to be a lot of akathisia with this medication), but I personally had some pretty pronounced anti-anxiety effects at low (below 10mgs) doses. My guess would be that if you started very low, like 2.5mgs or so, you'd have fewer problems...also, you might do better if instead of working up to a "therapeutic dose" you instead focused on finding the lowest possible dose to give you benefits. From my own experience, I'd say try to keep it at or below 10mgs. What also helps some people is occasional neuroleptic use; so, you could try it for a couple weeks, stop, then if you start having major problems again, go back on a low dose for a bit, then stop. Before the atypicals when the old antipsychotics were used for depression, this was pretty common; anxious, super-depressed patients might take Perphenazine for a week or two, stop, then go back on a low dose for a little while and then stop.
Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:587615
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051203/msgs/587679.html