Posted by Ritch on February 12, 2002, at 23:59:45
In reply to ben is definitely better today!, posted by e503 on February 12, 2002, at 19:46:16
> Gave Ben 50 mg. zoloft this a.m. and will give him 25 mg. tonight. He was really much better so far today. Seemed really happy - like his old self. So I guess whatever the reason is, he needs to take zoloft 2 times a day. I remember that we started to give him the zoloft all in the p.m. cuz he was anxious during the day and we wanted to see if giving him 1/2 of his risperdol in the a.m. instead of it all in the p.m. would help and when I gave it to him in the a.m. along with the zoloft, he was manic (akathasia, i am sure). So, we went back to giving him the risperidol all at night, but continued to give him the zoloft also at night. That's when the problems began. So, I guess the next thing would be , what would you do with some anxiety during the day? his teg level was 8.4 (1400 mg./day divided into 3 doses)and 1 mg. risperdol at night and 50 mg. zoloft a.m. and 25 mg. zoloft p.m. thank goodness we were able to figure out the zoloft part!!!! What would I do with out this board???????
>
> elise
Elise, It would be nice to be able to *ditch* the Risperdal if he doesn't really need it(is the Risperdal induced akathisia worse than his autism??). You just have to keep in mind that Tegretol levels can change dramatically with the addition/elimination or change in dosage of other medications. In other words, if you reduce or drop out the Risperdal you have to check his Tegretol blood levels for changes. That is the down-side of Tegretol-it changes with changes in other meds. If you can make the Tegretol adjustments to maintain the "level" that seems to be helping in response to changes in dosages of other meds, then you can maintain some objectivity, otherwise you will be back at a crapshoot.Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:93523
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020208/msgs/93948.html