My 14 year old son was diagnosed last year with Bipolar, ADHD, and ODD.
We've been messing with medications for a year now, with the plan to get his moods stabilized first before worrying about his ability to focus.
He was doing pretty good with a combination of depakote and abilify, so over the last month or so, we decided to experiment with a low dose of Concerta.
(He started at 18 mg, then went to 27 mg, and is supposed to be jumping again to 36 mg.)
At first I thought the Concerta was helping, since he seemed to have more energy during the day. But now my gut is telling me something different... I think I'm beginning to see mood changes again, but I'm having a hard time figuring out if it's the ODD behavior and not because of the stimulant.
Has anyone tried mixing stimulants with depakote and/or abilify with a negative outcome? What kinds of symptoms did you see? Are there any medication combinations for this diagnosis that are working for anyone?
We've been messing with medications for a year now, with the plan to get his moods stabilized first before worrying about his ability to focus.
He was doing pretty good with a combination of depakote and abilify, so over the last month or so, we decided to experiment with a low dose of Concerta.
(He started at 18 mg, then went to 27 mg, and is supposed to be jumping again to 36 mg.)
At first I thought the Concerta was helping, since he seemed to have more energy during the day. But now my gut is telling me something different... I think I'm beginning to see mood changes again, but I'm having a hard time figuring out if it's the ODD behavior and not because of the stimulant.
Has anyone tried mixing stimulants with depakote and/or abilify with a negative outcome? What kinds of symptoms did you see? Are there any medication combinations for this diagnosis that are working for anyone?