need help with medications

[escapedagain]

difficult child#1 is 9 years old. He did great most of last year. Last summer he just went down hill. He started melting down over nothing all the time, he became very violent, we now home school because he cant handle school. Anyway, the docs cant get his medications straight. He was on 7 at one time!
We have him weaned down to 4: depakote, thorazine, tenex and strattera. The doctor just started weaning him off depakote because he never had a siesure and his levels never went above 55. We never saw any change in him on the depakote either.

He will be on strattera, thorazine and tenex. right now he is very hyper, cant focus (I had to tell him 7 times to write down the answer to his math problem, "what comes after 21?" after I reminded him what answer he found on the number chart taped down to the table in front of him.), very manic (he runs away because nothing can happen to him, he painted a wall in his room blue while husband was watching him because he thought it would look good and he is the boss).

He cant take stimulants, they make him nuts and he was on risperdal and trileptal before with no outcome.

Can anyone suggest or let me know what has worked for their kids before. His doctor in new and I really trust her (she is afterall getting him off the 7 medications at one time). She is open minded and asks me what I think would be good to try. I don't know! Im no doctor! But I would like to sound a little like I know whats going on. So any thought?

 

[BusynMember]

Hi there. His doctor had him on SEVEN medications? And he's on Thorazine too.
First off, is he getting any intensive interventions for the Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)-not otherwise specified? That would be even more important than the medications. My son has Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)-not otherwise specified and the interventions were invaluable. He isn't even on medications anymore. He's doing great. Does this child maybe have alcohol effects as well?
My opinion, for what it's worth, is to see another psychiatrist. I don't think this doctor really knows what he is medicating. If your child gets nutty on stimulants, Straterra can even make him worse. He is on a medication for a mood disorder, thorazine (a very OLD school anti-psychotic) and the ADHD medication Straterra...I just wouldn't care for the mix for my kid. Maybe a neuropsychologist evaluation will give you a better idea of what is really wrong with your son. Sounds like psychiatrist doesn't know so he's just throwing medications at him to see if something sticks. I would be very leery of any doctor who gave that many medications AND who prescribed Thorazine.
Good luck and welcome.

 

[Jena]

hi,

i'm sorry to hear you are having a rough time of it. Yes, 7 medications strikes me as a whole lot. Yet you said your with new pyschdoc with whom is weaning off the medications, yes? Than I'd say trust her as you said and see how it goes slowly.

I know with my daughter she is on seroquel now, she too did not tolerate any type of ssri's well at all, nor anything for strictly anxiety, the benzo's etc. So, seroquel seems to balance her mood and lower her anxiety to some extent.

Yet, my doctor also prescribed thorazine to start and i said no way. I think it might work well for some kids, yet I was too nervous to use it only because the side effects were so extreme.

I can only share my experience, abilify didn't work for us, the other medications' as i said did nt' work either. Yet with my daughter i was looking to combat her anxiety, sleep issues, swinging moods, and anger. Which hasn't been handled yet we are stil struggling with that one.

I have no clue if i've been any help whatsoever. I have rambled.........

Anyway I wish you luck with the new dr. I would imagine you have to wait for the medications to wear off before starting a new.

i wish you luck, the medication game is always a rough one

 

[smallworld]

Unfortunately, getting the right medication mix is a trial-and-error process. What works for my kid (or kids) isn't necessarily going to work for your kid. As you can see from my signature, my three biologically related children are even on three different combos of medications.

If your difficult child has a mood disorder, that should be the first disorder medicated because medications traditionally rxed for anxiety (SSRI antidepresessants) and ADHD (stimulants) make mood disorders worse. In addition, Strattera is an antidepressant that often makes kids with mood disorders worse. Finally, kids with mood disorders have even had paradoxical reactions to Tenex. Instead of calming them down, it hypes them up.

To treat a mood disorder, a combination of a first-line mood stabilizer (Lithium, Lamictal, Depakote, Trileptal, Tegretol) with an atypical antipsychotic (Seroquel, Zyprexa, Geodon, Risperdal) should be rxed. I personally would not want my child to have Thorazine, an older antipsychotic, without ruling out all of the newer atypical antipsychotics, which have a better side-effect profile. It can take time and trial-and-error to hit on the right combo, but once you do, the child often is calmer and more focused and doesn't need ADHD medications.

How often is your difficult child seeing the psychiatrist? You might want the appointments to be weekly until your difficult child is more stable. If that is not possible, you might want to consider a day treatment program or inpatient hospitalization to do a medication wash and start from square one.

Good luck. I know it's not easy.