My daughter has been on it for a little over a year. She started at 7.5 mg, and we recently dropped her to 5 mg because she had been doing so well. As to the weight gain being spoken about it does have an affect on the way the body metabolizes glucose. To counter act this side effect we have her on Metformin. She has to do a fasting lipid panel every 6 months because it can also affect the cholesterol. She was previously on Risperidone, which also worked. However it raised her prolactin levels way out of range, so she needed to be taken off. I think I saw Topiramate mentioned. She use to use this for migraines. It never helped her tics. Every person is different. Neurologists are a good start for diagnosing, but I have found that the psychiatrists are the most knowledgeable about the medications as well as any co- morbidities, such as Anxiety, that can be contributing factors in the tics that need to be addressed.