Depakote questions

[Kjs]

Well, difficult child and I got into it again today. Seems as if both of us just blow our tops. Maybe more me. He sent me a message at work today saying he broke his Wii (game system) controller. He threw it against the wall because he was getting beat.

This is a common behavior forever. He cannot control himself if he starts to lose.

I had a psychiatrist appointment. and mentioned to him how I have been just losing control. It upsets me SO much when difficult child does things like this. He is acting like a pre-schooler, not an 8th grader.

psychiatrist told me that I should speak to difficult child's psychiatrist regarding Depakote. Said that would help the impulsiveness.

Anyone have success with that?
difficult child is definately impulsive, in many other ways than stated above. Loses many friends over silly things like that.

We looked into this before and husband didn't want to do it because of long term side effects.
Ofcourse difficult child didn't want to do blood draws...he'd pass out.
So, we didn't do it.

Now, considering it again. husband still concerned with organ damage. difficult child still will not do blood draws.

Lamictal definately helps his moods.

 

[gcvmom]

Well, I can say that in the 5 weeks difficult child 2 has been on Depakote, his frustration threshold has been raised and he does not explode like he was before. He is still a bit impulsive -- it seems to depend on the circumstances: if he's bored, hungry, tired, etc. Those factors tend to lower the threshold for him.

I can relate to the blood draw issues -- difficult child 1 needs them fairly often and has a needle phobia... basically would have a panic attack each and every time he saw a needle... got dizzy, felt faint, broke out in a sweat, vomited, etc. (His dad passes out when he sees his own blood, too).

I now have him lie down for blood draws (can't pass out lying down). Ativan takes the edge off and he also learned some biofeedback/relaxation exercises that help. The biggest help was putting him on 10mg Lexapro, which also allowed me to cut the Ativan dose in half. AND we got an rx for Emla cream (lidocain-type stuff) which numbs the puncture area very nicely. The final piece to this little routine is a reward at the toy store of his choice afterwards (with a pre-determined budget).

I can appreciate your husband's concerns about the effects on the liver and pancreas. That's the main reason for the bloodwork. From what I understand, it's not all that common, and isn't necessarily permanent. The liver has an amazing capacity to regenerate itself. Pancreatitis is serious, but treatable. I guess I'm just used to dealing with these issues since difficult child 1 was diagnosis'd with Crohn's disease last year. The immunosuppressant medications he takes can also mess up his liver and pancreas, AND can cause a whole host of other complications (thus the need for frequent blood tests), but the risk for those complications is far outweighed by the disease remission the medications have granted him.

I'm of the school of thought that if there's a potential solution to a significant problem, I'm willing to give it a try. I embraced Depakote because over the past six years, difficult child 2 has trialed various combinations with six different stimulants, an antidepressant, a blood pressure drug, and two different atypical antipsychotics and things were continuing to worsen. I was desperate, I guess.

Hope your conversation with difficult child's psychiatrist gets things moving in the right direction for him soon.

 

[Kjs]

Tried Lexapro. psychiatrist put him on 10mg's last spring to ease anxiety. He was up for 4 nights straight. psychiatrist then added remerom. He was totally out of control. took a long, long time to get him off those medications., and just on Lamictal. He was really a mess. psychiatrist afraid to try new drugs now too.

 

[gcvmom]

My mom told me Lexapro did the same thing to her, too. She was wired and couldn't sleep.

Celexa has worked better for her.

There are other options for dealing with anxiety/depression, and so I think you sometimes just have to try things to see what happens. It's not very scientific, but there's really no other way of finding out if something that's supposed to help a set of symptoms will actually work for you. I understand, though, about the concern over how he'd respond to a new medication, given his history.

The question is whether it's the anxiety/depression that's causing his anger problems and the lashing out, and if so, what are the medications that could help that? And with summer winding down, you're limited with how much time you have to sort this out before school starts again.

It's frustrating, isn't it?

 

[Kjs]

difficult child was given a prescription for Ativan .5 mgs a long time ago for anxiety attacks. Probably over a year ago. He has never taken a single one. He is afraid to. don't know why. I had Ativan and it did nothing for me. Xanax does nothing for me.

What kind of dosage are other difficult child's on? Does Ativan help?

 

[smallworld]

While Depakote controlled the mania, it made both J and A more depressed, which is why we switched over to Lamictal and then added a low dose of Lexapro. I still think your psychiatrist made a mistake in starting your difficult child at 10 mg. We started at 2.5 mg and worked up over weeks to 7.5 mg.

In your other post, I suggested Wellbutrin for difficult child. If you go this route, tell the psychiatrist you want to start very low and go very slow. There is no point in trying this if you're just going to induce mania right off the bat.