HeadMeds gives young people in the United Kingdom general information about medication. HeadMeds does not give you medical advice. Please talk to your Doctor or anyone else who is supporting you about your own situation because everyone is different. Please read more important details about our site.

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Risperidone

Return to Risperidone overview
  1. Use and Action
  2. Warnings and side effects
  3. Sex, drink, weight and everything else
Katie louise listing
Treating bipolar, depression and anxiety
If I could go back in time to before I started taking meds, I would tell myself to persevere as things will get better, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

Risperidone can be used to treat the following conditions

Headmeds fills the medicines information gaps for young people - things you might want to know about meds like will it affect my sex life? Can I still study?  Can I drink?
Headmeds does not give medical advice so this is just general information.
Each medicine has a balance of good and bad effects, and each person gets their own individual effects.
You might want to know just one thing about your medicine, but on each page we have given you the ‘safety headlines’. Please read them as they are important.
We have included lots of information about each medicine - but if you want all the details, please look at the patient information leaflet - which is inside every pack. These leaflets are also at www.medicines.org.uk - where there will be the most up-to-date information.

Safety headlines

  • If you have taken more risperidone than it said on the label, you must see a doctor quickly – even if you do not feel any different.

  • Risperidone can sometimes cause serious side-effects: allergic reactions (difficulty breathing, swelling of your face or throat, itching skin lumps), and other serious symptoms that you can find here. Go to a hospital if you get any of these symptoms, with your medicine.

  • Stopping risperidone suddenly can cause serious side-effects – if you are thinking of stopping or want to stop, talk to your doctor first.

  • You might feel sleepy in the first few days after taking risperidone – do not drive a car, ride a bike or operate machines until you see how this affects you.

  • If you take risperidone while you are pregnant, we do not know if it affects the developing baby. Use good contraception while you are taking risperidone. It can also cause symptoms in newborn babies if you take it at the end of pregnancy. Talk to your doctor or midwife about this and get their help.

Basic details

Risperidone is a Second Generation Antipsychotic medicine

A second generation, or atypical, antipsychotic helps to adjust the levels of dopamine and other chemicals available in your brain to calm it down.

Risperidone can be used to help a range of conditions.

You can take risperidone as normal tablets, dispersible tablets, a liquid or a long-acting injection.

Risperidone can be used to help the symptoms of a number of conditions

  • Psychosis
  • Schizophrenia
  • Bipolar disorder

It can also be used to help other medicines as an add-on for:

  • ADHD 
  • Autism spectrum disorder 
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Depression
  • Antisocial behaviour
  • Aggression in behaviour (conduct) disorders
  • Tics and Tourette’s syndrome

Risperidone can improve your symptoms by adjusting the levels of the chemicals in your brain

The brain is usually good at making sure we have enough of the chemicals we need to function properly.
• Experiments suggest that mania and psychosis are more likely to happen when the brain has too much of a chemical called dopamine.
• Amphetamines, which are stimulants and release dopamine, can bring on psychosis in people who do not have the condition. So scientists think that this is the way that the chemicals can bring on psychosis.
• Risperidone attaches to the same receptors in the brain that are activated by dopamine. It blocks the dopamine from getting to the receptor, and so the effect of too much dopamine is reduced.
• This means that the effect of dopamine becomes more normal and reduces the mania or symptoms of psychosis like hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders and behaviour problems.
• Risperidone does not treat the apathy (lack of emotion or interest) and withdrawing from friends and family that might also be part of the condition, but it can help reduce the symptoms that may cause this (such as hearing voices).

You should take risperidone as agreed with your doctor – you can take it before or after food

  • You will get most benefit from your risperidone if you take it regularly.
  • Make sure that you know your dose. If it is not written on the label, check it with your pharmacist or doctor.
  • You may have to take it once or twice a day, but once a day is OK.
  • It doesn’t matter what time you take it each day – choose a time that you can always remember and get into a routine. This could be a mealtime, or when you brush your teeth.
  • You can take it before or after food.
  • For the normal coated tablets, swallow them whole with a drink of water - if you chew it, it tastes 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 (‘melt in your mouth’) tablets, 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 (chemistry geek note: apparently 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.
  • The injection should change from the left arm or buttock to the right side and back each time, so it’s not in the same place all the time.

The good thing about this is that you don’t have to remember to take your medicine every day. It is slowly working in your body all the time between injections.

If you forget to take a dose then just take it as soon as possible

What to do if you miss a dose of the tablets or liquid:

  • If you remember later during the day, take it as soon as possible. 
  • If you forget to take it by bedtime, just start again on the next day.. • Do not take a double dose.

What to do if you miss an injection:

  • If you miss your appointment for your injection, contact your doctor straight away to make another appointment. 
  • It is very important to have the injection every 2 weeks. What might happen? 
  • 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.

You must go to A&E if you take too much

What to do if you take too much:

  • If you have taken more risperidone than it said on the label, you must get help quickly – even if you do not feel any different.
  • Go to A&E. Take your medicine with you, to show to the doctors. Tell them how much you have taken.
  • Get a friend or family member to go with you, if you can, just in case you feel ill on the way

You might get any of the following signs:

  • Feeling sleepy or tired
  • unusual body movements you can’t control
  • problems standing and walking
  • feeling dizzy (due to low blood pressure)
  • uneven heartbeat
  • fits (seizures)

It can take 4-6 weeks for risperidone to have full effect, but some people get good effects right from the first week

  • Many people say that it takes 4-6 weeks for risperidone to show its full effect.
  • Some studies now, however, show a good effect for some people within the first week.
  • You should stay in touch with your doctor to see how it goes over the first few weeks. They might do some tests to check your symptoms.
  • If you have had no good effects after 2-3 weeks, your doctor may increase the dose or change the medicine.
  • Your doctor will start you on a low dose and then increase it slowly over a few weeks to your dose that suits you.
  • If you are starting on the long-acting injection, it takes 3-4 weeks for the first injection to start working.
  • If you were already on some other tablets, you may need to continue with them for those first few weeks on the injection.
  • If you were not on other tablets, the doctor will probably give you some risperidone tablets until the injection starts to work.
  • If you were on another depot or long-acting injection, you may have one dose of each, very close together.

Don’t worry – you will not overdose if you take both types for those first few weeks. 

Many people take risperidone for many years

You and your doctor should talk about how long you need to take risperidone.

  • You will not get the full effect for 2-3 weeks.
  • If you take risperidone for bipolar or schizophrenia you should think about taking it for a few years - otherwise your old symptoms can come back.

People taking it for conduct disorders only take it for 6 weeks 

  • Young people taking risperidone for conduct disorders will only take it for 6 weeks.

Reference sources

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