Risperdal (also known as Risperidone) is an antipsychotic medication used to treat various mental illnesses.  Schizophrenic symptoms are often relieved with Risperdal.  It is also used to treat mania (frenzied, abnormally excited, or irritated mood) in adults and children over 10 years of age.  Lastly, Resperdal is prescribed to treat behavior problems such as aggression, self-injury and sudden mood changes in teenagers and children 5-16 years of age who have autism.

Although Risperdal was only FDA approved for treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar and autism symptoms, doctors have been prescribing Risperdal “off label” for the treatment of anxiety disorders, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, severe depression, tourette’s syndrome, disruptive behavior disorders in children; and eating disorders.  Over ten million people worldwide have been prescribed Risperdal.

Some doctors and consumer groups worry that patients are being subjected to unnecessary risks due to a wider range of conditions being treated with Risperdal.  The dangers of children using Risperdal is that adverse effects suffered by them could last a lifetime, a severe result of a problem that is traditionally fixed with counseling or some other type of method.  Large, powerful drug companies have recently been investigated for controversial involvement of sheltering safety reports in fears that making them well known would hurt sales of that company’s particular drug sales.

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