No Stimulants work! ADHD/ODD, 7 yr old

[nvts]

To be honest, he asked us to stop with the medications. He said that they made him feel creepy (it was the beginning of last summer) and spinney. Anyway, he was on Trileptal and had a nasty time titrating off it and he swore NEVER AGAIN!

Once he was off, slowly but surely he started to tell me that he was now able to recognize different feelings. In the past there was happy and mad - that was it. He was starting to understand frustration, anger, disappointment as well as love, hope, excitement etc.

The psychiatrist gave me hydroxizine to help with anxiety (it's actually a benedryl type of medication that has this "side effect" that calms the beast!) and at first he refused to take it. He'll take it on the rare occasion when he gets ratcheted up.

That's why I agree with Sharon. I'd recommend that you get a full evaluation done on him before you head down the medications route. You can save yourself a lot of copays ( ). My son was initially diagnosis'd with adhd and odd. I now consider those as symptoms rather than the diagnosis!

Keep writing - there's a lot of knowledge on the board and it's full of caring people.

Take care!

Beth

 

[smallworld]

I also want to point out that reaction to medications is not in and of itself diagnostic of a particular disorder. My son has had manic reactions to five SSRI antidepressants, and his Residential Treatment Center (RTC) is not convinced he has bipolar disorder, particularly since his mood is stable, even when his mood-stabilizing medications were discontinued. And a full 15 percent of children with honest-to-goodness ADHD do not respond positively to stimulants.

 

[trinityroyal]

I also want to point out that reaction to medications is not in and of itself diagnostic of a particular disorder. My son has had manic reactions to five SSRI antidepressants, and his Residential Treatment Center (RTC) is not convinced he has bipolar disorder, particularly since his mood is stable, even when his mood-stabilizing medications were discontinued. And a full 15 percent of children with honest-to-goodness ADHD do not respond positively to stimulants.

Agreed. I was trying to simplify, and probably left out some key information in the process. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[TiredSoul]

Thank you all for your feedback! We were able to get an appointment. with the p-doctor for next Fri, and in the meantime his pediatrician bumped him up from 18 to 27 mg of Concerta. I feel ok with it - just to see how he does on it for a week until we see the p-doctor.

I agree there is more going on than ADHD and ODD and we need to get to the bottom of it by having a thorough neuropsychologist evaluation. The past 2 days have been pretty good. Can you say 'roller coaster'?!! The last 2 nights, he has slept in my bed - which has probably resulted in more sleep which could be why things have been better. It is so hard to know when trialing a new medication if a) the dose is not high enough, b) he is having negative side effects, c) he is not getting enough sleep therefore is more difficult, or what.

We are leaving tomorrow for 4 days at the ocean. Hope it's peaceful.