Luvox didn't work

[Jena]

Hi!

i tried the luvox last night for difficult child, it was a no go. i kinda figured her response would be same as years ago, increased mania. Yet i liked this medication, and truly wanted to give it a try.

thanks goodness i only did 25mg and cut the original dose. I"m telling you i have soo many medications now, i could become a pharmacy. we have about 3 or 4 that haven't worked lol.

so she didnt' fly totally off handle because dosing was soo low, she just got very busy suddenly (moreso than the norm) she was on the flr at 1 a.m. lining up jenga sticks to make a domino affect eyes were wide open and raring to go. we pulled her in bed with-us to watch t.v. show we like on our easy child. than by 3 a.m. she finally tapered down and calmed. she's still asleep now.

going to try natural food store again, found a psychdoc seems promising on line going to call him trmw.

 

[DammitJanet]

Jena...Im gonna be honest here, You need to start with a mood stabilizer and let that stay for at least 6 to 8 weeks. This giving a medication a day or two trial is not good for her. You really cant get a good idea of what is happening or going to happen once it gets in her system if you only give it for one day. I have taken lots of things that make me feel icky the first day but it settles down after a couple of days or so. If I had stopped after day 1...I wouldnt have gotten better.

 

[totoro]

I was just gong to say basically the same thing as Janet.
I don't know what medication she needs but we are now on our 22-23 medication trial and back when we had a horrible psychiatrist he had K off and on medications the minute she had a negative feeling. He never gave them a chance to actually work.

When we first tried an AP the first 2 days were horrible! She was so agitated and borderline manic. After that breakthrough... They actually started working and we were able to start titrating up.
We have had actual medications that did not work, like Strattera, we trailed it 3 times with different combos. Caused her worse hallucinations, suicidal ideations.

Now Lamictal caused horrible stomach aches, on the floor crying, for me as well, but
we rode it out and now her and I are still on it and it is great.
It is hard on us and her. We try to support her and coddle her through medication changes which makes it easier. But she is at the point where she actually wants a medication to help her.
She like therapy also.
I like when my medications work and I know my kid feels better when her her medications are helping stay a bit more stable.
Good luck I know how much this hoovers... We are still working on it

 

[Jena]

that's what i was thinking also. i heard mood stabilizer first than bring in anti anxiety medication. i did some research last night. it makes sense to me. yet i dont' wanna mess around with-combo's without a pyschdoc on board.

well, last time we tried an ssri and she flew manic badly....... we kept her on for a few days and than had to pull her. why you think that someone can get a that type of response and than calm down??

 

[ML]

Personally and I'm not psychiatrist, from all the years I've been around this stuff, the MS has to come first before anything can be gauged.

In terms of the sleep, I can't remember if you tried melatonin.

Hang in there,

 

[Jena]

ML hey how are you??

yes we tried that. it's like candy to her lol. she's tough...... takes alot to calm her down. i'll have to wait it out till this doctor calls me back and praying he takes our insurance before i go mixing up cocktails. i shouldnt' even be having to do this kinda stuff finding her own medication. sooo silly!!!!

you know what, i worry too much. the kids either giong to go to sleep and get up for school and make it thru or she won't. and that's that. i have to learn i cant' worry about things i can't control. and if she cant' make it thru her day than i'll move to another plan of action. one way or another she's gotta get educated.

you know it's funny never had anxiety before until i had difficult child lol

 

[totoro]

I think with some medications they will make you sleep or they will amp you up or they will agitate you and then these side affects go away, but not everyone experiences these things.
I don't think an SSRI is the best bet for her personally. But a psychiatrist would have to decide this.
I have even seen a generic over a name brand cause different reactions.

Sometimes bringing a video with the reactions is a good idea for the doctors, they may see a different reaction than what you see.
Some kids take an Antihistamine and it amps them up or send them into full blown mania. Never know...
And this does not mean they are BiPolar (BP).
I can't take things like Sudafed, but I also can't take claritin. They make me hypo-manic. But I will take them if I have to knowing what is to come.
Depakote agitated K, we took it for 4 months and the side effects were just too much. Same with Lithium, it was not working. We took lithium even longer.
Now Topamax took a while for the side affects to go away for me but I have been on it for years. I love it. I think a lot of it is our bodies just adjusting to something foreign in it, right or wrong.
But they work wonderfully when they do work for you.

 

[totoro]

We give K her lamictal at night it seems to calm her, opposite for me?!?! We also give her melotonin and tryptophan!
But for some kids melotonin can cause nightmares and trigger them!!! I know it is crazy... Who knows?

I a.ways research all of the meeds we may like before we talk to psychiatrist and then after the psychiatrist suggests one we say we will take a day before we fill the script unless we have already decided on that one. LOL

 

[confuzzled]

i'll say it...

pardon me for saying so, no offense meant, and i surely dont mean to patronize you....

but you are playing fast and loose with serious psychiatric medications in an 11 year old child and i'm appalled that any doctor would start writing you random rx's so you can play around.

i wont even go to whats right or wrong for your child based on your current diagnosis's as i'm NOT a doctor, but most of these medications take time to work, and very many of them need to be titrated up slowly over time, and just about all of them come with serious side effects (and withdrawls from many of them are a btich, or rebound sx's, or whatever...).

i would not give that child another thing, RX or herbal (again, no offense, but herbal preparations ARE medications, and unsupervised can create serious issues even tho they are "natural") until she is seen by a comptetent psychiatrist who can make appropriate treatment decisions and perhaps either revisit your working diagnosis's or prescribe accordingly based on current treatment guidelines.

and maybe this is oversimplifying your issues, but it seems to me that her general sleep hygiene is off and that you need to go back to basics and get on a better schedule. sounds like she gets an adequate amount of sleep, its just that the hours during which she does so are not in accordance to real life. i probably would be anxious and exhausted if i was up til 3am as well. i'm certainly not saying her sleep issues arent very real, and may well be a very real sx of a serious diagnosis, but thats where i'd start....it costs nothing, its non toxic, and if it works, at least you'll all get some sleep.

i also think i'd call my local mental health dept ASAP to see if you can get a current list of psychiatrists and call each one to see how soon you could get an appointment. if i were in your shoes, i dont even think i'd care if they took my insurance....i'd rob peter to pay paul and worry about the details later. i also would (and DID) take the first available appointment with each and every psychiatrist you call, and not cancel ANY of them until 48 hours before so that you have multiple backups in case you dont like your first, or 12th choice of psychiatrists....i'm actually shocked you are having so much difficulty finding a dr, and is yet one more way in which your pediatrician is amiss---*he* should be on the phone begging them for appts for this child.

but until then, i'd stop playing around with medications.

 

[Jena]

Hi,

Thank you for being such a caring person that you reacted in the way in which you did. Having caring ppl is what makes this board worthwhile and an amazing place to vent. Yet from being a member of this amazing place over years i've come to learn that asking questions is key before one jumps to conclusions on any particular post.

the dr. with whom wrote the script for difficult child isn't any dr. he is a peditrician and has been for years and worked closely with-her pyschiatrist that we had up until several mos. ago. He is very aware of her past, as well as her current behaviors. You are correct though and as I have stated I do need a psychdoc to write the scripts and handle things from here, which if you read all the threads in this post i stated i was not comfortable just working with-that dr. if i'm giong into a second medication at this point.

I've been through all the testing, she has that is. evaluations, neuropsychologist evaluations......so a diagnosis isnt' what we are looking for at this point, a remedy is what we are searching for and have for several years now. My daughter has been labeled complex case from past service providers.

I feel very comfortable giving my difficult child natural supplements and herbs etc. under the supervision of her peditrican and have tried that route with-o any real remedy to her issues.

I also worked in the mental health field for a period and dealt with-little difficult child's and came to learn that there are many agencies to search for help here on long island. I have contacted them all and are currently on wait lists for them, we seem to have an over abundance of children with whom need dr.s and care and a lack of good insurance accepting doctor's here. Luckily as I also posted i have a number to someone now and am awaiting a return call.

Yet you will come to find as you spend more time here that alot of these parents, these amazing parents are very well versed on medications, and it is a huge benefit to have the input of how certain medications react in certain children and to compare to your own. I as many and probably most parents here always double check the dr after a script is written before popping medications into difficult child's mouth. Their doctor's yet they aren't gods lol. if only they were we wouldnt' need this place

as far as sleep is concerned difficult child has always struggled with-sleep issues since birth, its' an ongoing dilmena yet you are correct she is getting the sleep now her clock is just off. yet with experience i do know that difficult child can function very well on a few hours sleep which is what she will infact do if i pull her out of bed early after a 3 am.. night. it isnt' healthy yet it's who she is and what she does. yet this summer we decided to shift our world around her's so she could get the sleep she needed.

in short you are correct 100% i do need a good pyschdoc like yesterday, yet it takes time as many of us know once you lose a dr. to regain someone good. thanks for your concern.

 

[Jena]

toto - i was just thinking isnt' it funny that we do that or feel we have to with-checking the medications before we head to the pyschdoc's office? Yet just like anyone else there are good doctor's and not soo good doctor's. amazingly enough difficult child did great today. went to mall, she wasn't that difficult. got stuck on a few things yet i redirected and got her out of it quickly.

for mos. i've been working with her as her old therapist was in changing the thought patterns and how that little mind of her's works in regards to the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) stuff and the paranoia. it isnt' easy though. her wiring is what it is. she locks down on something and that's that. i have the same problem yet it's taken me years to control mine and i still get stuck at times lol. shocking lol

dr. said give it 3 days and call him so we can re evaluate what we are seeing with-her. soo much better than a pyschdoc to be honest. wish he was one so he'd be our guy. i used to call her old pyshdoc and never get calls back. so i'll give her the pill again tonight and we'll keep going on it.

minimal side effects today a little nasea yet that's it, not bad.

 

[susiestar]

This is just my opinion. From things I have learned here and researched elsewhere. your daughter is very hard to treat medically and psychologically. You also have problems of your own, like the rest of us, and are struggling to handle all of those problems.

You need a psychiatrist who will work with you and your daughter. You DO need to give medications a longer trial than I remember you doing in the past. It is terribly hard to wait so long to see if it will work and the side effects will get better. I know. Most of us here know. It is also important and necessary.

You need to go back and write a parent report - the link is in my sig. Include all medications tried and her reactions. You can get a list of medications going back years from your pharmacist if you as, or you can check to see what medications insurance has paid for. Dig out the old assessments. Put it all in a report.

Take that report, with ALL the info, to a psychiatrist. Ask if he will work with you. I hope the psychiatrist you just found is excellent and will help you.

in my opinion, from past medication reactions and this one, PLEASE do not give your child an SSRI/SNRI medication again. They simply have not worked for her.

You say she has a mood disorder. It seems likely. READ The Bipolar Child. I know not all of it fits your difficult child. But it can be helpful. ASK if he will use this as the guide for helping your daughter. Then please, give what he says a try.

No more having pediatricians deal with psychiatric medications. You already know he isn't qualified but you had to try something. I know how lost and hopeless you felt/feel. It is horrible, but you have fought it before and won. I have faith in you.

Many huge hugs.

 

[totoro]

I am glad she is feeling better! One day at a time right?

We are pretty lucky in that we have a therapist who knows her medications up and down and our psychiatrist knows hers. Both of them have G'sFG therapist has an adopted Daughter with major anxiety and Sensory Integration Disorder (SID) our psychiatrist has a son who has BiPolar (BP) also. They both also have lots of patients with Autism as well.
Makes our life easier.

You are doing what all of of us have struggled with and will again (starting medications all over again or not) . When K was in the psychiatric hospital for 5 weeks that jerk had her on so many medications and I was still so new at it that I just listened to him and had no clue.
Searching for psychiatristS is one of the scariest things to do. You just never know.
11 is in general is a hard age!!!

 

[Jena]

Toto - thanks!!!

tmrw's first day of school. she looks real cute in her new outfit here's hoping ms. thing stays there. soo hoping!!