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klmno, when you say your son was "triggered into major depression (1st time)," what triggered him?  Or did he get depressed on his own?


This is the course my son followed:  He became anxious and depressed.  The psychiatrist prescribed Zoloft.  After 3 weeks, difficult child 1 began to rage -- trash the house, break windows, go after family members aggressively.  We had never seen this behavior before in this child.  The psychiatrist immediately took him off Zoloft, but difficult child 1 didn't settle down on his own.  After 6 weeks of nightly raging, the psychiatrist prescribed Depakote.  After 6 weeks on a therapeutic dose, the raging stopped dead in its tracks.  However, he went back to being depressed, and while better on Lamictal and a low dose of Lexapro, we're still working on that symptom (we're going to make some medication changes this summer while school is out).


The problem with knowing exactly what's going on is that it is estimated that 30 to 50 percent of children who initially present with depression actually go on to have bipolar disorder.  In addition, "raging" is not synonymous with BiPolar (BP).  Raging can occur in other disorders such as anxiety and depression.


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