Post encephalitis psychiatric medication??

[RainthenSun11]

Hi everyone, does anyone here or their family take Risperidone for their psychotic behaviour? My daughter's been prescribed 1mg daily to help calm her down, particularly in the afternoons when she gets quite impulsive. Her symptoms are loss of executive function, lack of empathy, disinhibition, thoughts of fleeing and self harm. Please let me know if this medication is helpful??

[Choclover93]

hi, my sister is also on various psychiatric medications (in fact on a lot more than your daughter) as well for the neuropsychiatric complications of encephalitis. Generally for behavioural issues they use antipsychotics - risperidone is one such medication. So yes it should technically work - if it doesn’t, either the dose is too low or she is not responding and might need another antipsychotic.

[RainthenSun11 in reply to Choclover93]

Thankyou for your response. Can I ask what other medication helps her? Also is she too constantly seeking a dopamine hit? Be it food, risky behaviour...??

[lw1990]

Hi RainthenSun11

My mum was taking rispiridone initially, along with many other drugs . She was taking diazepam for so long that when she was admitted to a neuro psychiatric hospital , it took a while for her to be completely weaned off it .

Now that mum is home , she takes anti depressants and I think a small dose of an anti psychotic drug but I’m not sure which one , but her behaviour is completely different now to how it was whilst she was in hospitals for 16 months and her behaviour was so erratic that I no longer recognised her.

What I would say is that my mum has always being impulsive anyway but now her addiction to nicotine is completely out of hand . She smokes more now than ever before and I can’t seem to get through to her . She also now is diabetic since having encephalitis, and continues to eat lots of sweet treats despite knowing she should watch her blood sugar levels . I don’t know if it is related in any way but it’s virtually impossible to get her to change her addictive behaviours .

[RainthenSun11]

I'm sorry to hear that about your mum's addiction. I fear this for my daughter. Her sugar cravings are intense and she was never like this. Everything has changed, even her taste buds. The psychiatrist we're seeing has suggested Metformin to suppress her appetite and cravings.