The doses required are often relatively small. Treatment is usually begun with 0.5 mg each evening and a week is allowed to pass to determine if this dose is sufficient to control most of the tics. If it is not, 1.0 mg is given for the next week. The major side effect of haloperidol is tiredness. Additional problems seen in some individuals are depression, muscle spasms resulting in headaches, stomach aches or other muscle aches, or eyes rolling back.
Some individuals feel very restless on the medication.
Weight gain may be a troublesome side effect. Some patients prefer it since it may have fewer side effects than haloperidol. In others haloperidol may be effective when pimozide is not. Prolixin and Risperidal are also useful for treating tics. In addition to these there are a number of other medications that can be useful if the above are not effective.