Any thoughts on Lamictal or Geodone for my defiant 6 year old?

[richmanlopez]

We are having such trougble with my daughter not behaving and she is impossible to deal with.

Abilify has not worked at all. In fact it made her start being violent with classmates and I finally got it out of her system and the violence stopped. She is just totally moodly, irritable and defiant with her impulsive and ridgitity due to her brain development disorder. Risperdone worked great but could not deal with side affects as far as (weight gain and appetite) and abilify made things worse. as far as weight gain and appetite. How is Geodone or Lamictal? Any positives or negatives to say for those two drugs. We need help!!!

 

[zaftigmama]

Geodon is also an atypical antipsychotic, like Abilify, so I'd proceed with caution. I'd try Lamictal first. I take Lamictal, it's "weight neutral" but comes with other side effects, like all things do.

 

[buddy]

lamictal caused extreme rage and aggression for my son but it works great for others. Mine ended up in his first hospitalization over it. Such a bummer I really wanted it to work.

Risperdal and seroquel did that to him too but no psychiatric hospital with those. he was smaller and I could just handle him till it was out of his system.

He is on Lithium now and it has caused weight gain but he is in that puberty growth spurt too so it may be partly that too.

Problem is, you just can't tell from another child's reaction, what works great for one kid is awful for another. My son does BEST on a stimulant plus Clonidine. We may switch to Tenex which is in the same family but he may need less for the same effect so we may switch next summer.

The clonidine (or tenex or others in that class) can help with aggression, rage, etc... and some use it to help with adhd symptoms too.

 

[JJJ]

Has she had a full medical evaluation? Including a sleep-deprived eeg? If not, I would strongly recommend that before trying a new medication.

Lamictal works wonderfully for my son but he has epilepsy and the 'invisible' seizures were causing a lot of his issues. Lamictal has a risk of a serious, sometimes fatal reaction that starts with a rash. Please read all of the material you get with it, look online for photos of the rash so you know what you are looking for and ensure that the doctor starts low and slow on the dosage (Lamictal has a formal starter pack but I don't know if they have one for a child so young.)

 

[MICHL]

My difficult child takes abilify. He's trialed both lamictal and geodone in the past and they were both disasters. Abilify & Geo are both APs though.