Medication Information/Assistance

[nvts]

Hi! difficult child 1 is at it again! He's back in the psychiatric hospital. for an overnight due to a meltdown (got home around midnight last night!). Very - extrememly long story...he's in a Community Residence about 5 miles away so I'm not involved on the daily behaviors. He comes home for about 5 hours on Saturdays and goes to our locally zoned school.

We're having to take a re-look at medications. He's currently taking 4 mgs. of risperdal (1 in the am and 3 at 6 pm). The following is his medication history:


Here's the quick info:

Concerta - no good
Strattera - no good - allergic reaction
Buspar - no good - drooling - didn't work after (or before actually) the drooling started
Abilify - no effect but gained tons of weight
Hydroxizine - anxiety - sort of worked but made him super tired so it was given "as needed"
Seroquel - no good - HUGE weight gain - made him very, very aggressive (punching me and the walls, running away from home, very dramatic - foul mouth - zero self-control)
risperdal - HUGE weight gain - drooling started and now the other "stuff" is "re-manifesting"

At one point lamictal was mentioned and depacote or lithium. Truthfully, they scare me - I don't know where to turn.

Here's what I'm seeing as his symptomology that needs to be addressed:

anxiety
impulsivity
aggression/anger

Now we all know that I know that none of you are docs - HOWEVER - there's a lot of history on this board that you've all gotten positive reactions via experience and the "try and try again" method that goes on with our kids. Please know that I'll still research any suggestions that have worked for you!

Thanks for any and all insight!

Beth

 

[HaoZi]

Have you tried Zyprexa? Kiddo has weight gain and I had her taken off it because of night time foot pains, but her behavior was fabulous (the foot pains are apparently a very rare side effect).

 

[gcvmom]

Well, if anxiety is what's going on, maybe something like Remeron would help? It seems to be working for my difficult child 1.

Lamictal worked well for my husband, but he tends toward the depressive end of the spectrum. However the symptoms of anxiety, impulsivity and aggression/anger described him, too. He was at his best on Paxil and Lamictal together, and would still be taking Lamictal if he hadn't developed a rash with it. Right now Trileptal seems to be a decent replacement for it.

Good luck -- hope your psychiatrist can help nip whatever's brewing before things get way out of control.

 

[smallworld]

My son has mild Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), and we just interviewed a new psychiatrist for when he comes home from his Residential Treatment Center (RTC) at the end of this month. The psychiatrist told us that kids on the spectrum typically respond well to stimulants for inattention and atypical antipsychotics for anger and aggression. They generally either do not respond well or have no response to SSRI antidepressants or mood stabilizers. Of course, these are generalizations, not hard-and-fast rules. But ironically, after something like 35 medication trials, this has proven true in my son's case.

I wish I had more advice for you. Hang in there, and good luck.

 

[DammitJanet]

Well, my suggestion considering the fact that he seems to historically not do well on any of the AP's, that you try a totally different class of medication.

Since his symptoms are anxiety,impulsivity, and aggression/anger, which all could indicate some form of depressive or mood disorder, I would go with a Mood Stabilizer. At 11, I would go with something like Lamictal myself because it is weight neutral and I had bad luck with depakote causing my son to grow a small amount of breast tissue for which the kids teased him greatly. That didnt go away either no matter what he did. It also caused weight gain. Thats one of the reasons Cory refuses medications now. He got up to 265. Now he is 155 and looks like a skeleton. Of course, that doesnt happen to everyone.

 

[KateM]

My son was diagnosis with Aspergers at 13years old;he had been diagnosis with ADHD and anxiety at age 6. He has tried many medications through the years. The APs (Zyprexia, Resperidal.Seraquel and Abilify) did little to help his oppositional behaviors. In addition, he, too,had terrible side effects to each one.

What has been most beneficial to him for the past several years: Concerta for inattention, Zoloft for anxiety and Depakote for mood issues.

I agree with Janet -since you've had little success with other APs, I would try a different class of medications. None of the APs we tried helped. Both Lithium and Depakote have helped tremendously as has the Zoloft. (He is off Lithium as Depakote worked even better)

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

For difficult child 1, a combination of Trileptal and Abilify worked wonders. I know you mentioned that your difficult child didn't do well on Abilify though. difficult child 2 was on Depakote mainly for seizures when he was younger. A nice side effect of the Depakote was that he seemed to be less explosive while on it.

Hope you find the right combo of drugs ASAP!!! SFR

 

[susiestar]

Wiz is on a combo of several antidepressants and they are a HUGE help. He has done well with luvox, trazodone and strattera for quite a few years. The trazodone is for sleep - the amt he takes would make me sleep for a WEEK, lol, but the dose hasn't been raised in years and still works. The luvox is a big help with his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) behaviors. I hope you can find a way to help him.

 

[trinityroyal]

My difficult child is on a combination of Seroquel XR, Seroquel regular, Lamictal, Strattera and Omega 3. We have to tweak the amounts every once in a while, but he`s on about 1600 mg total seroquel per day (double the therapeutic dose), plus up to 100 mg PRN for anxiety and it seems to work for him.

Before that, he was on Concerta (disaster), and Paxil (severe akathisia and a mini "crime wave" that got him on house arrest for a year).

difficult child has an extremely high metabolism (at 6'5, he weighs about 125 lbs) so the weight gaining side effects of the medications are a help to him.

I know these medications seem to have been horrible for your difficult child 1, but I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring too in case a different dose or combination might be the answer.

 

[Jena]

hey

i'm sorry hes back in. I found this the other day it breaks down alot of medications and what their best used for and it's a great list i thought....... just click on the link and it'll bring you to it!!

http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/medications/moodstabilizers.htm i found it really helpful. I know about the lithium thing it scares me also yet i saw a few kids in the hospital on it and let me say they seemed great, anxiety was combatted sleep was ok, they just seemed so even and not at all doped up and they were at their theraputic levels. difficult child was on it in the hospital for about a week and hadn't reached the theraputic level yet but she seemed odd on it almost weird...

either way good luck and go chk out list.i'm in the same boat now a bit. difficult child isn't on any medications they prescribed respirdol yet i haven't filled it for some reason my gut's saying no to this medication.