Crazy Meds: The Good, The Bad, & The Funny of: - Meds - Risperdal Expanded Dosage Titration

Edit %

‹ Expanded Side Effects | RisperdalPagesIndex | Expanded Likelihood of Working & Comparisons with Other Meds ›
Crazy Meds Comprehensive Risperdal page

On this page… (hide)

1. Risperdal’s dosage and doses
2. Best way to take / special instructions for taking Risperdal
3. Risperdal’s titration (dosage increase)
4. How to stop taking Risperdal
5. Discontinuation symptoms
6. Notes, tips, helpful hints, etc. for discontinuing Risperdal

One of the most important aspects of any medication is how to go about taking it. This includes:

how much to take (the dosage or dose)
when and how often to take it (dosing schedule or doses)
how much to start with and how to increase the dose/dosage until you’re taking the target amount (titration or titration schedule).

This information is always in the PI sheet, is usually in the information for patients leaflets, most doctors will give you some idea of what it will be like, and this is what every pharmacist is trained and paid to tell you.

We here at Crazy Meds often disagree with the official schedules found in the PI sheets. We usually advocate starting at a lower dosage than recommended. One of our core philosophies is increasing the dosages as slowly as one’s condition allows, and staying at the dosage that works instead of a target dosage¹. More and more doctors are agreeing with us². You and your doctor can always discuss increasing the dosage when you need to in advance.
And since you never really know how a drug might affect you, it’s best to start when you have some time off of work. Like Friday night / Saturday morning, or your equivalent. Better still would be to get someone to stay with you or at least check on you frequently, especially if you’re the primary caretaker of young children and similar critters.

1. Risperdal’s dosage and doses

For schizophrenia: Ortho-McNeil-Janssen recommends starting at 2mg a day, increasing the dosage by 1–2mg a day until you reach 4mg a day. If needed, keep increasing the dosage until you reach 8mg a day. Once stable you can adjust your dosage as required with a range of 4–16mg a day.
For bipolar disorder: Ortho-McNeil-Janssen recommends starting at 2–3mg a day, increasing the dosage by 1mg a day until you reach the target dosage of 1–6mg a day. Once stable you can adjust your dosage as required with a range of 1–6mg a day.
I don’t think I’m crazy enough to understand their math. The dosages we suggest depend on how crazy you are at the time and if you’re already taking something. If you’re not too crazy and/or taking something, try 0.25 - 0.5mg and increase by 0.25mg every 2–4 days. If very crazy, go with Janssen’s schedule. RisperdalConsta is one 25mg intramuscular injection every other week for bipolar or schizophrenia.

2. Best way to take / special instructions for taking Risperdal

The PI sheet states that you absolutely cannot mix the foul-tasting oral solution with, or follow it by colas or teas.

3. Risperdal’s titration (dosage increase)

One thing PI sheets and doctors infrequently discuss, and don’t go into enough detail about, is how to discontinue a medication. With some meds it’s not too bad, but with others (most notably SNRIs like Effexor and Cymbalta) it can be a nightmare.

4. How to stop taking Risperdal

Your doctor should be recommending that you reduce your dosage by 0.25 or 0.5mg a day every 4 to 5 days, if not more slowly than that. Like all antipsychotics, you can stop taking it all at once in an emergency situation (e.g. a life-threatening allergic reaction), but you should do that only under a doctor’s supervision.

5. Discontinuation symptoms

6. Notes, tips, helpful hints, etc. for discontinuing Risperdal

Don’t mix the oral solution with anything. It’s the equivalent of cherry-flavored cough syrup. Instead of masking the bad flavor, it just makes it worse. No matter what you use you wind up having to drink more of something that tastes awful. Cowboy up, squirt it as far back in your mouth as you can stand, and follow it with lots and lots of water.

‹ Expanded Side Effects | Risperdal Index | Expanded Likelihood of Working & Comparisons with Other Meds ›
Crazy Meds Comprehensive Risperdal pages

Bibliography

¹ Although not everyone has the luxury of stopping at a dosage when the symptoms abate and not increasing it unless the return. Sometimes you just have to keep going up until you reach that target dosage. E.g. you have a history of seizures that haven't yet responded to several medications.

² Most notably Dr. Edward Faught, founder and Director of the Epilepsy Center, and vice chairman of the Department of Neurology, at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. His article on new antiepileptic drugs in Volume 7 issue 1 of Peer Review in Review stressed starting at low dosages, doing a slow titration, and stopping at the dosage where symptoms were under control. In Topiramate in the treatment of partial and generalized epilepsy*, the one free, full-text article I could find (that's not about geriatric patients), he again stresses the low and slow approach to avoid or lessen most side effects, while still achieving seizure control in the same amount of time.

*Link to Topiramate in the treatment of partial and generalized epilepsy Scroll down to the section “Practical use of topiramate”

Date created 08 Mar 2011 - 14:08 Page Creator: JerodPoore Last edited by:

Page design and explanatory material copyright © 2004 - 2011 Jerod Poore. All rights reserved.

Almost all of the material on this site is copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Jerod Poore. Except, of course, the PI sheets - those are the property of the drug companies who developed the drugs the sheets are about - and any documents that are written by other people which may be posted to this site will remain the property of the original authors.  You cannot reproduce this page or any other material on this site outside of the boundaries of fair use copying without the express permission of the copyright holder.  That’s usually me, so just ask first.  That means if want to print out a few pages to take to your doctor, therapist, counselor, support group, non-understanding family members or something like that - then that’s OK to just do.  Go for it!  Please.  As long as you include this copyright notice and the following disclaimer, I’m usually cool with it.

All rights reserved. No warranty is expressed or implied in this information. Consult one or more doctors and/or pharmacists before taking, or changing how you take any neurological and/or psychiatric medication. Your mileage may vary. What happened to us won’t necessarily happen to you.

The information on Crazy Meds pertains to and is intended for adults.  While some information about children and adolescents is occasionally presented (e.g. US FDA approvals), pediatric-specific data such as dosages, side effects, off-label applications, etc. are rarely included in the articles on drugs or discussed on the forum.  If you are looking for information regarding meds for children you’ll have to go somewhere else.

Know your sources!

Nobody on this site is a doctor, therapist, or a pharmacist. We don’t portray them either here or on TV. Only doctors can diagnose and treat an illness. Some doctors tend to get pissed off by patients who know too much about medications, so tread lightly when and where appropriate. Diagnosing yourself from a website is like defending yourself in court, you suddenly have a fool for a doctor. Don’t be a cyberchondriac, thinking you have every disease you see a website about, or that you’ll get every side effect from every medication*. Self-prescribing is as dangerous as buying meds from fraudulent online pharmacies that promise you medications without prescriptions.

All information on this site has been obtained through our personal experience and the experiences family, friends, what people have reported on various reputable sites all over teh intergoogles, the medications’ product information / summary of product characteristic (PI/SPC) sheets, and from sources that are referenced throughout the site.  As such the information presented here is not intended as a substitute for real medical advice from your real doctor, just a compliment to it.  You should never, ever, replace what a real doctor tells you with something from a website on the Internet.  The farthest you should ever take it is getting a second opinion from another real doctor.  Educate yourself - always read the PI/SPC sheet or patient information leaflet (PIL) that comes with your medications and never ever throw them away.

Crazy Meds is not responsible for the content of sites we provide links to.  We like them, or they’re paid advertisements, or they’re something else we think you should read to help you make an informed decision about a particular med.  Sometimes they’re more than one of those things.  But what’s on those sites is their business, not ours.

Very little information about visitors to this site is collected or saved. From time to time I look at search terms used and which pages they bring up in an effort to make the information I present more relevant.  And the country of origin, just because I’m geeky like that.  That’s about it.  Depending on how you feel about Schrodinger, our privacy policy should either assuage or exacerbate your paranoia.

All brand names of the drugs listed in this site are the trademarks of the companies named on the PI/SPC sheet associated with the medication, sometimes on the pages about the drugs, even though those companies may have  been acquired by other companies who may or may not be listed in this site by the time you read this.  Or the rights to the drug were sold to another company.  And any or all of the companies involved may have changed their names.  

Crazy Meds is optimized for the browser you’re not using on the platform you wish you had.  Between you and me, it all looks a lot cleaner using Firefox.

No neurologists, psychiatrists, therapists or pharmacists were harmed in the production of this website.  Use only as directed.  Void where prohibited.  Contains nuts.  Certain restrictions may apply.  All data are subject to availability.  Not available on all mobile devices or in all dimensions of reality.
*While there are plenty of books to help you with hypochondria, for some reason there’s not much in the way of websites.  Then again, staying off of the Internet is a large part of curing/managing the disorder.
‘Everything is true, nothing is permitted.’ - Jerod Poore

Crazy Meds’ Recommendations on How Much to Take, How to Increase the Dosage, and How to Stop Taking Risperdal (risperidone).