Can i stop risperidone

You should not need a new prescription for this medication to be refilled. Your doctor will write the number of refills authorized on your prescription.

You and your doctor should monitor certain health issues. This can help make sure you stay safe while you take this drug. These issues include:. Some insurance companies require a prior authorization for this drug. This means your doctor will need to get approval from your insurance company before your insurance company will pay for the prescription. There are other drugs available to treat your condition.

Some may be better suited for you than others. Talk with your doctor about other drug options that may work for you. Disclaimer: Healthline has made every effort to make certain that all information is factually correct, comprehensive, and up to date.

However, this article should not be used as a substitute for the knowledge and expertise of a licensed healthcare professional. You should always consult your doctor or other healthcare professional before taking any medication. The drug information contained herein is subject to change and is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, warnings, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or adverse effects.

The absence of warnings or other information for a given drug does not indicate that the drug or drug combination is safe, effective, or appropriate for all patients or all specific uses. Schizophrenia, a lifelong psychiatric disorder, isn't fully understood. There's no specific cause. Learn about possible causes. Also, get tips for…. Medications for bipolar disorder include lithium, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, antidepressants, and ketamine.

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Learn more about eye changes associated with schizophrenia and how they are diagnosed, treated, and more. Schizophrenia is a type of mental illness that can change how you think and act, as well as how you feel. Learn more about the symptoms here. Disorganized or hebephrenic schizophrenia is no longer a diagnosis, but the term is still used to describe symptoms such as disorganized thinking and….

Schizophrenia treatment varies by individual but typically consists of medications and psychosocial treatments, like therapy. Schizophrenia currently cannot be cured. With treatment, this serious and lifelong psychiatric condition may be manageable. Knowing how to address symptoms — and what not to say — can help you communicate with your loved one diagnosed with schizophrenia. Learn more here. Wondering how to help a loved one with schizophrenia? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect.

Risperidone, Oral Tablet. This drug may increase the risk of death in seniors who have dementia. This drug is not approved to treat psychosis in older adults with dementia. Highlights for risperidone. What is risperidone? Risperidone side effects. Risperidone may interact with other medications. How to take risperidone. Risperidone warnings.

Take as directed. Important considerations for taking risperidone. Are there any alternatives? Drugs to Treat Bipolar Disorder.

High-Functioning Autism. Understanding Eye Changes Associated with Schizophrenia. Symptoms of Schizophrenia. Read this next. Medically reviewed by Timothy J.

Legg, Ph. Medically reviewed by Alan Carter, Pharm. Medically reviewed by Tiffany Taft, PsyD. Symptoms of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a type of mental illness that can change how you think and act, as well as how you feel.

Medically reviewed by Jeffrey Ditzell, DO. Symptoms in the newborn may include agitation, feeding disorder, hypertonia, hypotonia, respiratory distress, somnolence, and tremor; these effects may be self-limiting or require hospitalization. Typically patients begin at a low dose of medicine and the dose is increased slowly over several weeks. The oral dose usually ranges from 1mg to 6 mg. The dose of the injection usually ranges from Only your healthcare provider can determine the correct dose for you.

Use a calendar, pillbox, alarm clock, or cell phone alert to help you remember to take your medication. You may also ask a family member or a friend to remind you or check in with you to be sure you are taking your medication.

Risperidone orally disintegrating tablets must remain in their original packaging. Open the package with clean dry hands before each dose.

Do not try to put tablets in a pillbox if you take the orally disintegrating tablets. Risperidone orally disintegrating tablets will dissolve in your mouth within seconds and can be swallowed with or without liquid. Risperidone liquid should be measured with a dosing spoon or oral syringe, which you can get from your pharmacy.

It should be administered by your health care professional through an injection into your upper arm or buttocks area. The medication effects last for approximately 2 weeks. It should be administered by your health care professional through an injection under the skin of your abdominal area. After receiving the injection, you may have a lump for several weeks that will decrease in size over time. It is important that you not rub or massage the injection site and to be aware of the placement of any belts or clothing waistbands.

If you miss a dose of risperidone, take it as soon as you remember, unless it is closer to the time of your next dose. Discuss this with your healthcare provider. Do not double your next dose or take more than what is prescribed. Avoid drinking alcohol or using illegal drugs while you are taking risperidone.

They may decrease the benefits e. If an overdose occurs call your doctor or You may need urgent medical care. You may also contact the poison control center at Sedation, drowsiness, extrapyramidal symptoms, insomnia, fatigue, headache, anxiety, dizziness, drooling, restlessness, increased prolactin, weight gain, increased appetite, vomiting, constipation, upper abdominal pain, nausea, urinary incontinence, tremor, cold symptoms, cough, runny nose, fever.

Risperidone may increase the blood levels of a hormone called prolactin. Side effects of increased prolactin levels include females losing their period, production of breast milk and males losing their sex drive or possibly experiencing erectile problems.

Long term months or years of elevated prolactin can lead to osteoporosis, or increased risk of bone fractures. Some people may develop muscle related side effects while taking risperidone.

Symptoms of EPS include restlessness, tremor, and stiffness. TD symptoms include slow or jerky movements that one cannot control, often starting in the mouth with tongue rolling or chewing movements. Temperature regulation: Impaired core body temperature regulation may occur; caution with strenuous exercise, heat exposure, and dehydration. Second generation antipsychotics SGAs increase the risk of weight gain, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol.

This is also known as metabolic syndrome. Your healthcare provider may ask you for a blood sample to check your cholesterol, blood sugar, and hemoglobin A1c a measure of blood sugar over time while you take this medication. Information on healthy eating and adding exercise to decrease your chances of developing metabolic syndrome may be found at the following sites:. SGAs have been linked with higher risk of death, strokes, and transient ischemic attacks TIAs in elderly people with behavior problems due to dementia.

All antipsychotics have been associated with the risk of sudden cardiac death due to an arrhythmia irregular heartbeat. To minimize this risk, antipsychotic medications should be used in the smallest effective dose when the benefits outweigh the risks. If you put on weight, there are other antipsychotic medicines you can try which are less likely to make you put on weight. You may want to let your family and friends know you are taking risperidone so they can support you and help you look out for side effects.

For guidance on this, check out our page on getting support with your medication. You can feel sleepy in the first few days of taking risperidone. This should get better after the first week or two.

With risperidone, some people find it hard to get to sleep. If this happens, you can change the time that you take your risperidone each day if you are taking tablets or liquid. Take it earlier in the day and see if this makes it easier to get to sleep. If you are on the long-acting injection, talk to your doctor if your sleep is disturbed.

You can continue to drink alcohol in moderation while taking risperidone. You might find having the two together makes you very sleepy, so during the first few days it might be best to stop drinking alcohol until you see how the medicine affects you.

If you want to drink alcohol, remember that you might be sleepy and make sure you can get home safely. Some street drugs can increase levels of dopamine in the brain e. As antipsychotics block the effects of dopamine, the 'high' from street drugs may not be as 'high' as before. You may therefore be tempted to increase the dose of your street drug to make up for it, but this could be dangerous. Cannabis and other drugs may have their own side effects on your mental health, like anxiety or psychosis.

For more information, have a look at our drugs and alcohol page. Check with your doctor or pharmacist whether risperidone is OK for you to take if you are on any other medicines. Always talk to the doctor if you are taking other medicines. Tell the pharmacist you are taking risperidone if you buy medicines including things you put on your skin for common illnesses. The ordinary tablets may not be suitable for you if you have problems eating some sugars or dairy milk-based foods, as they contain lactose.

The orodispersible 'melt in your mouth' tablets may contain aspartame, which can be a problem for people who have a condition called phenylketonuria. Taking risperidone may make you feel tired or dizzy, and may affect your eyesight when you start taking it. This could affect you if you drive a car, ride a bike, or do anything else that needs a lot of focus. It might be best to stop doing these things for the first few days, until you know how it affects you.

You must tell The DVLA Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency if you have bipolar disorder , schizophrenia , schizoaffective disorder or other mental health conditions that could affect your driving. When deciding whether to take risperidone during pregnancy it is important to weigh up how necessary risperidone is to your health against the possible risks to you or your baby, some of which will depend on how many weeks pregnant you are.

Remaining well is particularly important during pregnancy and while caring for a baby. Treatment with risperidone in pregnancy may be the best option for both mother and baby.

As with other antipsychotics, taking risperidone may cause your folate levels to become low and a prescribed supplement dose of 5mg daily should be taken. There is information on over mums who took risperidone and there does not seem to be an increased risk of malformations, miscarriage or diabetes during pregnancy.

If you have taken risperidone close to delivery your baby may have some side effects or such as being irritable, crying or problems feeding and sleeping.

These are usually mild and go away in a few days without treatment. Risperidone is passed to the baby through breast milk in small amounts. This could help with any discontinuation symptoms. Remember that it is important for you to remain well while you are bonding with and looking after your baby. For this reason, it may be best to take medicine for your mental health when breastfeeding.

If your baby was premature or has health problems, then you will need to be extra careful about taking medicines while breastfeeding. It may be best not to breastfeed if this is the case, but you should discuss this with your doctor or midwife.

These effects should pass after the first couple of weeks. If they do not, and this is a problem for you, go back to the doctor and see what else you could try.

While taking risperidone it might be more difficult for you to fall pregnant, but this effect is not permanent. This hormone is produced in high levels to produce milk in breastfeeding mothers and provides some natural contraception.

This means it may be more difficult to get pregnant if your prolactin levels rise. Do NOT rely on this as an alternative to good contraception. Talk to your doctor about this if you want to get pregnant, and see below for more information about taking risperidone during pregnancy. Taking risperidone may make you feel tired and dizzy, and affect your eyesight. This could be dangerous in some sports like cycling or driving. It might be best to stop such sports for the first few days, until you know how it affects you.

Taking risperidone may make you feel tired or make it hard to fall asleep at night. It can also give you headaches or affect your eyesight. If they are more than a month away, however, you might find that it is better to start risperidone to improve your motivation to study.

Psychosis and schizophrenia themselves can also affect concentration. You need to talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting treatment with risperidone if any of the following apply to you:. If you take risperidone for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia , you should think about taking it for a few years, otherwise your old symptoms can come back. You will get most benefit from your risperidone if you take it regularly at the dose prescribed by your doctor.

Make sure that you know your dose. If it is not written on the label, check with your pharmacist or doctor. Risperidone is usually taken once or twice a day. You will start with a low dose, which will be increased slowly to a dose that is effective for you.

This could be a mealtime, or when you brush your teeth. For the normal coated tablets, swallow them whole with a drink of water - if you chew them, they taste bitter. You can break them into two pieces at the line on the tablet if you have trouble swallowing them as one piece.

For the orodispersible tablets melts , put it on your tongue and let it dissolve there and then swallow it you can wash down with water if needed. You can dilute the oral solution with any other non-alcoholic drink if it makes it nicer to take, apart from a cup of tea or a glass of cola the tannin chemical in tea and cola stops the risperidone from absorbing properly into your body. If you agree to have the long-acting injection LAI , a doctor or nurse will inject this into a muscle in your arm or bottom every two weeks.

It is slowly working in your body all the time between injections. If you forget to take it by your next dose, just take the next dose at the correct time. Do not try to catch up on missed doses. If you miss your appointment for your injection, contact your doctor straight away to make another appointment. If you forget to take your tablets for a few days, or you miss an injection, you may start getting your old symptoms back.

You should talk to your doctor about this. When you start taking an antipsychotic, your brain adjusts to having lower levels of dopamine around. If you stop taking the antipsychotic suddenly, the balance starts to change again, and your brain can take a while to adapt to this change. You could get your old symptoms back. You could also get some symptoms from the change, which are called withdrawal symptoms, although these are mild and rare with risperidone. They will reduce and stop the risperidone slowly so that any problems like your old symptoms coming back can be picked up quickly.

It is better to agree stopping with a doctor who will reduce your dose gradually. This will be done over a few weeks. If you have taken more risperidone than the dosage recommended by the doctor who prescribed it to you, you must get medical help immediately — even if you do not feel any different. Risperidone can sometimes cause serious side effects.

Tell your doctor immediately if you experience unusual movements mainly of the face or tongue. Go to hospital immediately if you think you may have developed a blood clot symptoms are usually swelling, pain and redness in the leg ; a clot may travel through blood vessels to the lungs causing chest pain and difficulty breathing.

Also go to hospital if you develop a combination of fever, faster breathing, sweating, muscle stiffness or drowsiness; and tell them that you are taking risperidone. Very rarely risperidone can cause severe allergic reactions.