Help My friend is being prescribed risperidone what can I do to help?

[Adûnâi]

Should they run away or kill themselves? Are the adverse effects as hellish as I've heard?

 

[ForgottenAgain]

I took Risperidone for several months lately, 3mg per day. My side effects were quite a lot of constipation (psych prescribed Lactulose to help counter that), weight gain and I think at the beginning I would fall down when getting up too quickly in the morning, this faded in some weeks.

Your friend may experience other side effects or none if he is lucky. As a friend, I think the best you can do is support whatever his decision is

 

[Jorms_McGander]

Should they run away or kill themselves? Are the adverse effects as hellish as I've heard?

Honestly, you should be a more supportive friend. This medication is not a hellish experience at all. I take it daily, big whoop. It helps me sleep and my psychiatrist says it is the glue that holds everything else together, whatever that means lol. Overall I'm not sure it has an effect.

Certainly, having a prescription is no reason to kill ones' self.

If you can't support your friend, then I'd say try to mind your own business? Medications are not torture. They are an important part of managing mental health concerns, and the cultural bias against them is largely a holdover from drug families which fell out of use twenty years ago at least.

Take a deep breath and support your friend.

 

[Adûnâi]

If you can't support your friend, then I'd say try to mind your own business? Medications are not torture. They are an important part of managing mental health concerns, and the cultural bias against them is largely a holdover from drug families which fell out of use twenty years ago at least.

> "Serious side effects may include the potentially permanent movement disorder tardive dyskinesia"

See, I'm happy that you two have had great experiences with it, but a threat of psychiatric drugs would definitely be a lights out for me personally - but YMMV. I can only judge for myself. And I do admit my experience is non-existent. I'm just an idiotic Russo-Ukrainian shut-in, what do I know?

Of course, I would like to support them because in a few years we are going to become immortal due to AGI singularity. But at the same time, I'm ideally wary of persuading folks against killing themselves because I have barely suffered in my life, I can barely imagine what it might feel like. See, it's complex.

And no, medications are absolutely used by sadistic parents to murder children's souls. Makes my blood boil. Would love to say a non-politically-correct thing, too, but for that I would be banned. (No, it wouldn't be anything rude or impolite, just the sacred cow of the current West. Psychiatry is a vile pseudoscience.)

 

[LaVieEnRose]

Always have buckets of food at the ready for him.

 

[Jorms_McGander]

> "Serious side effects may include the potentially permanent movement disorder tardive dyskinesia"

See, I'm happy that you two have had great experiences with it, but a threat of psychiatric drugs would definitely be a lights out for me personally - but YMMV. I can only judge for myself. And I do admit my experience is non-existent. I'm just an idiotic Russo-Ukrainian shut-in, what do I know?

Of course, I would like to support them because in a few years we are going to become immortal due to AGI singularity. But at the same time, I'm ideally wary of persuading folks against killing themselves because I have barely suffered in my life, I can barely imagine what it might feel like. See, it's complex.

And no, medications are absolutely used by sadistic parents to murder children's souls. Makes my blood boil. Would love to say a non-politically-correct thing, too, but for that I would be banned. (No, it wouldn't be anything rude or impolite, just the sacred cow of the current West. Psychiatry is a vile pseudoscience.)

Put all of this aside and be there for your friend. It's none of your business what other peoples' medical care is and you shouldn't really be interfering in that. As others mentioned, lots of snacks will help.

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

Just be a supportive presence in your friend's life, no matter what happens, I think they will appreciate it. I know you're concerned about them, but what have they told you about their current situation? How they are feeling about all of this? I think it's important to focus on that.

At the end of the day, taking a medication (or not) is an individual's personal decision and they have to weigh up the risks and benefits for themselves. When you are desperate for relief, often one will try things that carry risk, simply because the existing symptoms are too much to bear, you know? Once someone has access to all the necessary information, only then can they make a truly informed choice.

Typically, prescriptions should come with a safety and information leaflet which goes into full detail about all of the not so pleasant info like potential constraints and side effects, which ideally everyone will read before they start taking a drug. Pharmacists are also a great resource of knowledge if your friend is concerned.

Second generation antipsychotics like risperidone tend to be safer than older ones, typically, if that eases some of your worries. Everyone's experience will be different, of course, but a key mechanism of action of risperidone is an antagonism of multiple types of dopamine receptors, which will always run the risk of extrapyramidal side effects as dopaminergic neurotransmission is vital for motor functioning.

However, lower doses of the drug sway towards antagonizing serotonin receptors rather than dopamine receptors, which lessens the risk of adverse motor-related sequelae. Unless your friend is in active psychosis, it is unlikely they are going to be given the higher doses, so the risk of the particular side effects you're describing would likely be lower, if this quells your worries at all.

What tends to be more worrisome and needs to be monitored carefully are metabolic changes, antipsychotics can cause elevated blood glucose levels and put you at risk for developing diabetes. Serotonin receptors are actually quite important for feeding behaviours, metabolism, weight gain, etc, so it's something to keep an eye out for and make sure your friend informs the prescribing doctor if they're showing signs of being pre-diabetic. Personally, I did not take neuroleptics when I was offered them, for this reason.

All you can do is respect your friend and be there for them no matter what they decide to do. I understand where you're coming from, because I also don't like antipsychotics on principle (that's because I did a neuroscience degree and I have read countless studies about them and how they are used innapropriately in a lot of cases especially in elderly populations). However, if your friend thinks this is the best decision for them and the medication ends up being beneficial for them, I think that is a much much better outcome than ctb.

 

[Adûnâi]

All you can do is respect your friend and be there for them no matter what they decide to do.

Thanks for the super helpful (and arguably hopeful?) response! The issue is also that it's the parents doing it, however. Could it be the case of a schizogenic mother who sadistically tortures her child using psychiatry as a weapon? After all, infanticide is forbidden, so they can only bully.