Bad reaction to Zyprexa -- anyone else?

[gcvmom]

I had to take my son to the ER tonight -- apparently he developed a bad reaction to the Zyprexa.

We were at a restaurant for dinner when he started complaining of his throat and tongue feeling swollen. I ran to a local drugstore and got some liquid Benedryl to give to him. On the way to the store he started complaining of his jaw being misaligned -- like it was cramping or spasming. He couldn't hold it straight and it was actually hurting him. Also, he couldn't stop his eyes from staring up and his head kept twisting to one side.

We decided to stop at the ER on the way home. By now he was drooling and having trouble swallowing although the jaw symptoms were improving a little, but intermittently. His head was still tilting to one side, his tongue was quivering and he couldn't hold it out straight.

I got hold of our neuro and he agreed with the ER doctor's assessment that it was probably due to the Zyprexa. So now we're back to square one.

They gave him a shot of Decadron and some Ativan to relax him, and he was feeling much better and the symptoms seem to have resolved for now.

Anyone else ever had this problem with a neuroleptic medication?

 

[smallworld]

How long had he been taking Zyprexa? What dose?

My daughter M has been on Zyprexa since June 2006 with no side effects save the normal hunger and weight gain.

My son J had a bad reaction to the AP Risperdal. He had uncontrollable mouth opening, tongue thrusting and lip licking (dystonia) to the point of developing a staph infection all around his mouth and external and internal restlessless akin to agitation (akathisia). Needless to say, we pulled him off Risperdal, and he has never taken it again. In fact, we were so spooked by J's experience with Risperdal that we waited more than 2 years to trial another AP. In December, he started taking Seroquel, which our neuro said is a "softer" AP, and he's the best he's been in years.

I see you're weaning your difficult child 2 from mood stabilizers. Are APs the treatment for Sydenham's Chorea? What's going to happen now?

 

[BusynMember]

My son had similar reactions to both Zyprexa and Ripserdal. However, we had a warning. He had flu-like symptoms and a bad headache first. Nobody believed it was the medications (he was on a very low dose both times). Finally, when the more obvious signs happened, he was taken off the Risperdal. When it started happening with Zyprexa we stopped it even before the doctor told us to. My son can not take those types of medications. Fortunately, he doesn't need to, we found out.

 

[slsh]

My son had a psychotic reaction to Zyprexa - go figure.

I just want to say you handled this so well. We have to be so on top of things 24/7. I know that we missed the beginnings of thank you's reaction to Zyprexa because he wasn't raging (too psychotic to, it turns out) and I've always felt guilty over that. You did a fabulous job!

 

[gcvmom]

How long had he been taking Zyprexa? What dose?

Hi Smallworld:

He had only been on Zyrpexa about 16 days. The first seven he was at 5mg/day, then we bumped him to 10mg/day. And yes, that is the drug the neuro chose to treat the Sydenham's and the reason we were starting to wean the mood stabilizers. Although Depakote is used to control chorea, our psychiatrist, who is working with the neuro, felt it better to take him off it.

I firmly suspect that the Sydenham's was also the reason for his mood deterioration about a year and a half ago, the same time his handwriting went in the toilet. He's had mild chorea movement issues since he was a preschooler, and mild mood issues since about first grade, but never to the degree the two presented in 4th grade.

So I guess we're back to square one. I remember he had the jaw spasms when he was on Abilify (I think). So maybe we need to revisit Risperdal since he did pretty well on that for two years.

 

[gcvmom]

MWM: Some day more doctor's will credit parents more for knowing their child as well as we do and will pay attention when we tell them when things aren't "right" with our kid!

 

[gcvmom]

SLSH: Thanks for the kind compliment... you made my day!