Help! Changing meds from risperdol to abilify - not going well

[Slipper]

My oldest daughter has autism and is functionally non-verbal. She can occasionally say a word in an appropriate manner but rarely.

 

On risperdol, she was happy nearly all the time. She was compliant with dental work, doctor appointments, etc. She became impatient when forced to sit for long periods of time (church is a definite no), but could happily stay in a sunday school class even if she didn't understand what was being discussed. Our one problem was that she had started urinating on herself. She usually does that when she's anxious as a 'control' behavior. It had become excessive, several times a day. She hasn't started her period yet, so I thought maybe she was having some preliminary stomach cramping or something like that and was acting out.

 

We saw her psychiatrist last week and he was concerned that we had upped her risperdol to a point that was causing the wetting. (Previously, she had severe wetting/urinating problems on a higher dose of risperdol and we had to back down). He thought it was time to change her to another medication and decided on abilify.

 

We gradually moved her down on risperdol and up on abilify over the past week.

 

The good news - she has become more assertive in getting things she wants and we have seen some language increase.

 

The bad news - where do i begin? The assertive behavior in getting things she wanted (such as the nintendo) has turned into obsessive behaviors. She tantrums when not allowed to play on it. Typically, she went to bed happily at 8:00 and was asleep by 8:30. Her internal schedule made this a breeze. Now she is up for most of the night. She's pressing on her eyelids and started chewing on a hard plastic baton (it was filled with glittery liquid) and cracked it. While I was checking for damage to teeth or braces, she bit me. When I told her 'no', she started crying. I finally found some ativan and gave her some and I'm praying she will fall asleep soon.

 

I plan to call our psychiatrist tomorrow, but is this normal with a medication change? She typically has trouble with medicines and has had some nasty reactions before. I'm miserable. I want my happy girl back. Will it get better?

[MomatHWTK]

I think any time there is a change there are going to be some adjustments. Perhaps the doctor can tell you whether this is an adjustment phase or not. It may take a combination of medications to do what the Risperidol was doing. :/ It is very frustrating to try to find the right combination of medications for a maximum benefits and a minimum of side effects.