Risperdone has helped my son tremendously. The worst side effect is serious weight gain. For my son, the weight gain will start to take its toll on his overall health in his 30's and 40's.

Hello. My 23 year old son is diagnosed with severe autism and is nonverbal. He also has anxiety disorder. At age 20, he had 2 mild seizures. Cognitively he is about age 3. He has been on meds since he was age 7. As his body changes, med dosages have changed - up and down. It works for him.
Here are his current meds. His meds are managed by a psychiatrist.

1. Risperdone (Antipsychotic · Atypical antipsychotic)
2. Topiramate (Anticonvulsant · Anti-epileptic Agent)
3. Propranolol ( Beta blocker )
4. Lexapro (Serotonin reuptake inhibitor)
5. Seroquel (Antipsychotic · Atypical antipsychotic)

Good luck finding what works for your loved one.

This is an update on my answer my son has been on Abilify for several months. Today and yesterday the school called for me to come pick him up early cause he was biting his fingers and toes and making them bleed. He has so much Anxiety now! He has never done this before at School. I called the Pediatric Neurologist and he won’t change the medication until after the IEP meeting next week. In the meantime my son said he doesn’t want to go to school and frankly I’m scared to send him. I made him go the last 2 weeks every day it was a challenge. Idk if this medication works for everyone. My son is verbal and was mainstreamed but now he has so much anxiety all he wants to do is stay in the special ed classroom. Now they had staff changes this year , so I can’t contribute all his behavior to medication alone. But the teachers and therapists at the School say he didn’t act this way last year and he loved school- so they are blaming his meds.The doctor blames the teachers and says they need to change behavior plan. ( It’s a big mess.) I would only use Abilify as a last resort- it may work for some children but not every one reacts to meds the same way. My son is 11 and we put him on Strattera and added Abilify because he is going threw puberty and had a few behaviors we thought it would help. Now the behaviors have increased and he went from loving school to hating it! He was never on meds until age 10 years. I have applied for ABA but we are on 8 waiting lists. Please be careful when you put your children on medication. I wish you all luck.

I had Griffin on Abilify, we now call it “Demon’s Milk!!”. His aggressive behavior tripled instead of going down. After one morning of him waking up and literally growling and yelling like the “Incredible Hulk” and then putting his head into the wall next to him we pulled him off of it. I really need to write some of these experiences down...there’s gotta be a book deal in this stuff

@A MyAutismTeam Member We are trying it. Im afraid it could increase my daughters appetite more than other meds., like Abilify. I wish there was something without these side effects.

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