first day on prozac

[Jena]

hi

so it's our first day on prozac liquid. gave to difficult child almost 2 hours ago, she sped up like given upper's or something. started ripping stuff out of closets, pictures, anything she could find, tried to start a project than couldn't stay focused, heart rate is up, etc.

so i called phydoc with whom i said she reacts this way to ssri's yet he didn't believe me i guess. we do not kow if difficult child has BiPolar (BP) yet. last doctor who tried ssri to address the sleep issue and severe anxiety she was up for alot of days in a row.

so here we are yet again. ex is screaming on phone she doens't have BiPolar (BP), your insane. it's just a good time overall......................NOT

so this poor kid once again, wrong medication i'm thinking.......but i have no choice it' sin her system now i will just have to observe and see.

without medication's she has gone to bed at 1:30 am every night this week, she's been flying high we reg. her in a theatre group and that seems to get her going even more. exercise and activities only increase her hyperactiivty.

 

[susiestar]

I am sorry. Jess reacts this way to SSRIs also. It just isn't fun, is it. Hope you and the ex can manage this with-o much more screaming. Maybe if he is so sure she is OK HE can take her for the day?? problem not, but is it worth asking him?

Wish I could help.

 

[Andy]

Wow! What was the dosage?

difficult child's therapist stated that as we bring difficult child off prozac that we have to go real slow. He said the liquid form can give smaller dosages.

I am so sorry this was the wrong medication for your child. For her to react so quickly - wow. I thought prozac was something to build and took awhile to take effect. Obviously not in your child.

If you feel it is BiPolar (BP) then ignore husband's emotions. He may be in denial. Go very slow with ANY medications ask for the very lowest dose and work up.

Poor thing. She may need to find calming activities since buring energy activities are not helping. I have to go look to see how old she is to figure out some suggestions. Be right back!

 

[Andy]

Calming activities for 8 year old girl?

Many girls that age like to color those felt pictures that come with markers.

They sometimes like to start diaries - keeping a log on the day's activities and their feelings.

I think any activity with not much distractions or need to switch gears or thinking quickly. Does she get a lot of alone time that she can focus on one thing without a sibling interrupting?

Try an art project - making jewerly out of strings of bead? painting a wood project? give her old magazines and poster board to make collages - one of favorite animals or things she likes or colors.

The energy burning activities might be overwhelming as she tries to process all the activity around her. To burn energy, take her on bike rides or walks (burns energy and is calming).

Try upping the structure of her daily life. I have found that even though I think it is a boring life, I need to keep difficult child from too many activities because life just gets too fast when we go at my speed. I have to slow way down and listen to his cues. Like when we went to Disney World when he was 8 yrs old. Trying to cram in as much fun as possible in one day was too overwhelming for him. We had to just choose a few activities and let the others go.

 

[BusynMember]

My son does not have BiPolar (BP), but he reacts like this to SSRIs. My son got nuts on one pill of Prozac. It was his last pill. I never gave him another one, and found a new doctor. I trust my "mom gut" with medications, and my son can't take SSRIs, period.

 

[smallworld]

My son can't take SSRIs either, and he may very well have BiPolar (BP) (that's his working diagnosis at this time). At age 11, he took 5 mg Prozac, and within a couple of hours, had a rage reaction that resulted in a broken window. It can happen, although it's hard to convince the doctors (our psychiatrist didn't believe it was the Prozac until we had tried other SSRIs with similar results).

Sometimes kids who have anxiety do better on tricyclic antidepressants (Amitriptyline, Nortriptyline, etc) or Remeron. It might be something to ask the psychiatrist about.

You also need to ask the psychiatrist about getting her sleep under control. That should be the first order of business because lack of sleep can be disregulating in and of itself.

 

[susiestar]

Remember though, htat not all kids who react to prozac and SSRIs like Rin does have bipolar. Jessie clearly does NOT have bipolar and she reacted this way to prozac and zoloft. The dev pediatrician we saw says it is not an uncommon reaction in children, for whatever that is worth. (We like and respect him, but have no clue if this is true for other kids than ours.)

 

[smallworld]

Susie is correct. I didn't mean to suggest that every child who reacts the way ours do has BiPolar (BP). Some kids react with disinhibition, and they don't have BiPolar (BP). Our psychiatrists say the reaction is more suggestive of BiPolar (BP) when it lasts well after the SSRI is discontinued. That happened with my son. He didn't settle down for weeks and weeks after a 3-week trial of Zoloft. That's when his psychiatrist finally decided to trial a mood stabilizer (which worked!).

I hope you can get in touch with the psychiatrist soon.

 

[Jena]

hi,

this was very helpful input and i greatly appreciate it. susie good call on the reaction to the ssri's and anyone else who said that. this happened last year as i said. so it was only get this, 0.625 ml. she was a horror to herself for about 5 hours she's still hyped but coming down, more focused now. she cried relentlessly over something for about 25 minutes in car punching seats, etc.

ok smallword great info on tricycle not sure if i'm spelling it right medication, remeron. i think i'm going to suggest that.

doctor called me his partner who was on call this weekend. he said do nto give her anymore tomorrow that's it, prozac is over for her. he said that it's leaning towards BiPolar (BP) now, given this is second experience of mania when given ssri. last time was lexapro what a nitemare 5mg and 5 days of pure hell for her especially and me.

ex is just totally in denial as per usual. i am def. going to mention remeron on monday when i call her dr. directly.

we have tried to address sleep issue through therapy, meditation and yoga calming cd's baths, sprays, etc. reading nothiing worked at all, even herbal supplements like melatonin. we have also tried various drugs they all had horrible side effects on her. she also bed wets almost every night.

she is just very hyper when she is up, hard to explain dancing and singing if weekend night and i dont' force down. very hyped if weeknight we can read a whole book together, one night she went through 8 small books.

so, i think before i scream bi polar i think i may suggest or mention that other medication that smallworld suggested. sort of hit and miss game, right?

now logically speaking as parents, not doctors and we've all been there.......if we try to treat the anxiety and sleep issue with for instance the ssri and now if i go into the other remeron and same affect. would it lead one to believe as a parent that BiPolar (BP) is the diagnosis?

i don't want to believe it, yet anxiety the dr said is major component of BiPolar (BP). we may have it in our families yet everyone's too in denial to go to doctors.......lol

i myself found out during summer i have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), obsessional thinking part of it very much so.
we have depression on both ends of our families, alcoholism, anxiety, panic attacks, suicides, one mood disorder. such a wonderful gene pool she got.

thanks again for the info it is invaluable and i am beginning to think that we know more than the docs..........seriously though lol

 

[Jena]

smallworld - question if you don't mind........remeron i looked up is treatment for major depresion. granted she was diagnosed by columbia with major depressive disorder yet we were looking to treat the anxiety. i'm going Occupational Therapist (OT) look up on my drug list again later yet do you know of medication that treats anxiety that is in different class of drugs not the ssris?

 

[smallworld]

Jen, most antidepressants except for Wellbutrin treat anxiety as well as depression. My younger daughter, who became disinhibited on Prozac, is taking Remeron for anxiety with good results (not perfect, because we still have some raging, but good). You should also look up Amitriptyline and Nortriptyline, which are tricyclic antidepressants. There's no guarantee they'll work, but it's worth a shot because they're not SSRIs.

I forget -- has she ever taken Seroquel? If so, what happened?

 

[Jena]

hi,

i'm taking notes while i keep coming in on and off thru nite to bring to doctor monday lol. she has been on abilify (made her anxiety go thru roof), seroquel which worked great then it stopped working we increased dose weight shot up and rash so we had to pull her.

my ex keeps telling me i'm insane he attacks pretty bad everytime i tell him a doctor says it's likely bipolar. i said listen it's not a death sentence with care it can be managed. yet he's so in denial it's ridiculous he just gives me alot of stress. we were calm for while until today when i told him what doctor said........oh well.

she's just so hyped some nights........she's been on a run now for ten days prior to start of school minimal sleep, then she finally crashed a bit, now she's been up again last night almost 2 a.m. now she's flying around dancing and playing with the kid its' just non stop hard to keep up with her. i'm exhausted when she gets like this. i'm seeing more manic stuff lately less depressive whereas mos ago it was just the opposite

 

[Jena]

playing with the cat, sorry typo not the "kid" lol.....i'm tired

 

[smallworld]

If Seroquel worked well before, you might want to try it again and just start low and go up slowly. Seroquel is great for anxiety, depression, mania and general mood stabilization.

Weight gain is a concern, but that can be offset with other medications. Plus it can slow down on its own over time. I don't believe rash is generally a side effect of Seroquel, so that could have been from something else. In any event, it might be worth a shot.