psych med question

Specialties Psychiatric

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What kind of meds are used to control anxiety disorders long term? I have heard that some SSRIs are now used to treat anxiety as well as depression. Do these medications tend to work very well for anxiety? Are there some that have more side effects than others? Thank you...

High doses of Paxil are effective for many, 60 even 70 mg.

Thanks for your reply... I'm not too knowledgable about anti-anxiety meds...

Specializes in Geriatrics/Oncology/Psych/College Health.

Unfortunately, SSRI's can actually cause anxiety as one of their side effects in the short term, so sometimes low doses of benzos will be used as a very short term concurrent tx with celexa or other SSRI's in the initial 2 week period or so.

Paxil max is 50-60 mg/day

Paxil max is 50-60 mg/day

With extreme anxiety e.g. "panic attacks" Paxil is the drug of choice, individually titrated to therapeutic response. Stress reduction and coping instructions/groups in conjuncion very effective with enhancing, augmenting the therapeutic response. Paxil is also useful for depression when the person is a "chronic worrier" and it is the anxiety which causes the depression.

I am sorry about changing the subject, but I have a question. Can someone tell me about the medication Risperdal. I know it is a psychiatric med. What mental health condition(S) is it used for?

What are the common side effects? Can risperdal help a person's ability to focus more at school? What are the long term effects if any with this medication? Thanks For Your Time

Carmen

I work with adolescent boys at a juvenile facility. Our doc has used risperdal for treatment of ADHD the impulsive type, especially if the resident has anger problems. We have had alot of success with this and the doses are small say, .5 bid. maybe alittle higher. He does do aims(abnormal involuntary movement scale) monthly. If you are not familiar with this term it is to identify if there are side effect from the medication(risperdal is an antipsychotic) There can be irreversible side effects, but not as many as when thorazine and haldol were prescribed. Hope this helps.

About Risperdal:

Great drug, used a lot in Sweden.

Its fairly lenient on side effects, the main advantage is that weight gain is not an issue. The main side affect is that the consumer may get extra-pyramidal effects and Parkinsons similar symtoms, ie cant sit still etc. It also has an alleged affect on white blood cells and the should be monitore although ive never witnessed this myself.

The parkinsons symptoms can be controlled with anti-parkinson medicine, "disipal" is one drug here, cant remember the name of the active substance though.

Its mainly used as an anti-phsychotic, i presume it would help concentration in school but only if the individual was being distracted by a phsychotic disorder or something likewise.

Long term anxiety, Buspiron seems to work well,

http://www.buspar.com

dixyrazin (esucos) is a similar but short term & fast working drug

What does everyone know about Gabitril(Anti Anxiety med, fairly new)? How does it work for long term solution to Anxiety/panic attacks?

Murt -- Risperdal is notorious for causing weight gain. Not sure where you have been but I personally know people who gained 25 pounds when they started taking the drug.

anti-anxiety Rx used are any of the SSRI's, not just Paxil. Other medication used is Effexor XR. BDZ's used in the interim are tricky and not recommended for comorbid substance abuse dx. Clients often dont want to taper off them b/c they are so effective initially. Really an individual decision and important to know your client. Risperdal does cause weight gain in some people. If used above 6mg/day, can have same SE as Haldol or other conventional AP's. Some people actually are more sensitive and experience EPS and Parkinsonian SE with lower doses. One speaker announced that if you need to use an antiparkinsonian drug to treat SE of the atypical AP's, you are defeating the purpose and they lose the "atypical" properties. Gabitril is an anticonvulsant that some people are beginning to use in Psychiatry as a mood stabilizer, but not approved here in Mass, so dont have any experience with it.

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