Medication

[-132]

Hello my son has tourettes syndrome, ocd, anxiety, adhd and sensory processing disorder.

My sons consultant wants to put him on risperidone, I'm really worried.

Iam obviously going to speak to my sons doctor.

I just wanted to see if any other children have been offered this drug??

[Aspen797]

I can understand your concern. Has your son already been trialed on guanfacine? That or clonidine are usually first line meds for anxiety/irritability/attention/tics before considering an antipsychotic.

[-132]

Thank you for your reply. He is on clonidine, I have not heard of guanfacine, I will have to look it up

[Aspen797 in reply to -132]

I'm not sure what's prompting the recommendation for your son, but for our son with autism, add, anxiety, and tics, we have found the combination of a low-dose stimulant and guanfacine to be most helpful. We were told that antipsychotics could be useful if tics interfered with his quality of life, but due to concerns about tardive dyskinesia, they try to stick with guanfacine if it's effective and quality of life with tics is good. I hope someone else with personal experience with that medication chimes in! All kids are so different and benefit from different treatments

[PickPink in reply to Aspen797]

Hello Aspen797! May I ask you which low dose stimulant your son was prescribed? My son is on Guanfacine and it’s working great for us but I have heard that adding a low-dose stimulant works even better. My concern is that my son still has some vocal tics, so I worry if the low-dose stimulant would make the tics worse!

[Aspen797 in reply to PickPink]

Glad the guanfacine is working for your son! Ours takes guanfacine year round and takes Focalin 10mg when in school. This may have just coincided with age and puberty spurts and lags, but for what it’s worth, we experienced a huge decrease in tics 2 months into giving him a magnesium, zinc and iron supplement. We’ve kept giving that as well. I think some of our kids are genetically predisposed to process things differently and some may need more or less of different foods and vitamins. Best of luck to you!

[PickPink]

I will be trying the supplements, thank you Aspen 797! I hope that -132 finds Guanfacine to work well. I wish both of you good luck and good health and happiness to your families!