Has anyone had success with SSRI's the second time around?

Josie

Active Member
Over the past 3 years, difficult child 2 has tried Lexapro (caused headaches, feeling that something wasn't right), Prozac (couldn't sleep), Zoloft (suppressed her appetite, causing her to lose weight), Luvox (muscle twitches, impulsivity), and Paxil (2 days, raging).

Some of her "side effects" like the muscle twitches, headaches, and feeling that something wasn't right could have ben her Lyme disease diagnosis'ed later.

Her psychiatrist wants to try Zoloft again at a lower dose to help with her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I don't have much hope for this since she already tried it and had to be taken off. Has anyone tried a medication after a few years and had success?

Or any other medications for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) that are not SSRI's? She has tried Anafranil with bad side effects, Buspar, Elavil, and Topomax.
 

JJJ

Active Member
Eeyore was on Paxil and it made him a zombie. We took him off of it and a year or so later put him on Prozac. It seemed to help some.
 

Nancy423

do I have to be the mom?
zoloft didnt' work here. difficult child would eat everything in sight and leave notes about how she feels unloved and no one wanted her around. We got off that real quick.

it's 2 years later and we've just started lexapro yesterday (very low dose). I can't tell you how it's worked yet. One opinino is that her previous dosing was too high and that she was too young to get a good response to the medication.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
you may have to keep trying different SSRIs. There is some talk that just because a person didn't tolerate one of the SSRIs as a child doesn't mean they won't as an adult and it is worthwhile trying them again after tehy are grown and the brain is more developed. Not at ALL sure about that though. It is just something my psychiatrist brought up to get my opinion (he knows about the kids' issues).

Not at ALL sure we would try the same SSRI again, mostly because there seem to be so many of them and each has different side effects etc... I know for ME that I come back to prozac no matter what else I try. Nothing else seems to work well for me, at least not for more than a couple of weeks.

But with Jess I won't try one again - not until she is an adult. She was literally high on both prozac and zoloft - total disinhibition and it was NOT a pretty sight!

Wiz has been on 5 or 6 of them. He, like me, does best on those related to prozac. Luvox is very close to prozac, but is supposed to be stronger. He does VERY VERY well on it - NO suicidal ideation at ALL!!! (He is the one who is totally suicidal with-o a SSRI antidepressant, if you remember) He even stopped the cutting, which he had started at age 7 with sticks or rocks!

I hope whatever you do works out well. Sorry not to be more help.
 

Stef

Dazed and Confused
Personally, I don't think teens should be given SRRI's. My difficult child was given them before and both times he started acting out pretty bizzare- got extremely paranoid. We got him off them, and we won't go back.
 
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