TSParentsOnline received this e-mail from a Texas mom named Jennifer who is looking for some feedback regarding medication. To help her, please leave a reply in the comments section.
My son has been diagnosed with TS for 4 years now. He has several co-morbid conditions, and like the parents on the blog, I think the tics are the least of the concerns a lot of the time.
He is in fourth grade, and last year he was — and still is — having issues with rage. He went on Risperdal, and now that I sit back and look, I think it might be more of an ADHD issue than rage.
I was wondering if anyone out there found a better reaction on ADHD meds to deal with the rage than Risperdal. I don’t like the Risperdal because the last blood draw showed a problem with kidney function. When I looked on side effects for Risperdal, it showed kidney damage as a side effect. Anyway, I was wondering if there was a blog about medicines to help me figure this out.
I have one wish: I wish that the neurologist, pediatrician, immunologist, neurofeedback doctor, neurosensory doctor and all the other doctors could talk to each other instead me relaying all this information to everyone over and over again. Then maybe I wouldn’t be sitting here wondering what in the heck to do to stop my son from sitting under his desk at school trying to get away from it all….
Well first I wanted to say you are definitely doing the right thing by asking lots of questions and looking for a better solution for your son. As an adult with TS, I don’t currently take any meds “for TS” but I do take medication for anxiety-my doctor and I agree that the anxiety exacerbates the tics so for now we are treating that instead. In the past (in adulthood) I have taken clonidine with success for tics. I have read that it can be used for adhd and other co-morbid disorders with TS but of course i don’t know if it would be a fit for your son. Perhaps its something to consider. I have found the most success in being prescribed meds by a neurologist because he specialized in TS.
During our daily scouring of the Internet for helpful TS links, we found this one: http://www.tourettesyndrome.ca/showthread.php?5942-Is-taking-Risperidone-really-worth-the-risk. Risperidone is another name for Risperdal, and this forum is definitely worth a read. I hope you, and others, find it helpful.