medications combos - questions

[sosotired]

I know there is no "standard" for medications and what may work for one, won't work for another, but I'm just wondering, on average, whether your difficult child is on 1, 2, 3 or 4 different types of medications.

difficult child is diagnosed Aspie / ADHD. So far, he's been taking a stimulant and a anti-anxiety/depressant. The doctor wants to add a mood stabilizer due to defiance, tantrums, just general out-of-controlness.

Is this combo the norm?

I'll be honest, I'm scared to death to throw another variable into the mix. I don't see where the stimulant is working any more (been on it 3 years). We just increased the dosage and no changes in levels of attention. When we upped the dosage on the anti-anxiety, we saw HUGE problems with beahavior, so just backed off the higher level.

It's a constant game of medication russian roulette.

So what mix of medications is your difficult child on??

 

[crazymama30]

My difficult child is on a stimulant, a mood stabilizer and an atypical antipsychotic. First he was put on the stimulant, then off the stimulant and on the mood stablizer untill stable, added back in the stimulant, then added the ap.

I think that 54mg of Concerta seems like a large dose, and stims are known to make anxiety worse. Did you see his behaviors get better or worse with the Concerta? I am not a doctor and sometimes medications that look funny are done a way for a reason, so I do not want you to take what I say as gospe.

My difficult child and yours have very different diagnosis's, so my experience is different than yours. I think I remember that risperdal, an ap, is commonly used with asperger's to reduce things like outbursts and aggression.

Hopefully someone who is more familar with aspergers will be along shortly.

 

[smallworld]

Would you please name the medications and their doses? It's easier for me to talk about specifics.

 

[emotionallybankrupt]

Regardless of the specific combo, I'd beware the add, add, add approach if the current medications appear to have either no benefit or a negative benefit. I have learned that doctors have very different approaches. Many just keep adding, and others are more likely to stop one and try another.

Often a mixture of several does work, and if you can find an effective combination, that's a wonderful thing. I have no problem with the adding if the current drugs are helping but just not enough.

I think the most important thing to guard against is winding up on so many different drugs that, when things are not going well, it's so hard to untangle what drug is causing the problem, or what drug simply doesn't get along with another drug for that particular person.

The other issue is medication compliance. Is your difficult child good about this? The more medications and the higher the dosages of medications on board, the more scary if a difficult child pulls a power play to go cold turkey on all of them. My difficult child crashed hard.

 

[flutterby]

Before adding another medication, I would d/c the stimulant and see if anything changes.