Pharmacological treatment with risperidone in children with behavior disorders

Introduction. Behavior disorders are frequently seen in children attending a neuropaediatric clinic, The classical neuroleptic drugs are usually used for treatment. However response tends to be irregular with adverse effects at a cognitive level and extrapyramidal symptoms. Patients and methods. We started to use risperidone in children with serious behavior problems who had not responded to other drugs, and evaluated the clinical course and side effects. Results. A total of 16 patients aged between 7 and 14 years were treated for diagnoses of: hyperactivity attention deficit disorder, mental retardation with nonspecific behavior disorder, Gilles de la Tourette disorder with hyperactivity attention deficit disorder and generalized disorder of development. The doses of risperidone varied between 0.01 and 0.05 mg/kg/day. In two cases the evolution could not be assessed, was good in 10 and no change was seen in 4. The group of patients with most improvement were those with mental retardation. The commonest adverse effect was weight gain. No patient had extrapyramidal symptoms. Conclusion. We consider risperidone to be a safe drug for the pharmacological treatment of children with behavior problems.