Nervous about suggested medications...

[Alisonlg]

Talked to M's new psychiatric hospital psychiatrist tonight by phone for about 1/2 hr to fill him in a little more and answer any questions he had and then listen to his medication suggestions for M.

He wants to start M on an SSRI to treat anxiety. He does not think M is ADHD and I agreed with him. Of course, he doesn't really know M at all...he's just going on the history he's been given. He called me on my cell and I was having trouble hearing, so I wasn't totally clear on whether he's going to discontinue the Seroquel or not. I would assume he's going to discontinue the Strattera.

Just typing this I can feel my anxiety rising. This is such a rollercoaster. Everybody is just "guessing" and I feel like I should just plan out four to five weeks from now when M will be readmitted to the psychiatric hospital (you know...depending on when they discharge him...he can't seem to make it more than 3 weeks post discharge).

I voiced my concern that I'm very concerned that M will go manic on an SSRI. And, I'm not a Dr and I could be way off base, but I had to say it out loud. He agreed it was a risk, but said we wouldn't know unless we tried it. I told him how the other psychiatrist wanted to add a mood stabilizer to the Seroquel and we sort of threw that around for a minute, but he went back to the SSRI.

I'm scared. I'm anxious. I don't want a FOURTH psychiatric hospital admit after this one. I'm rambling. I'm sorry. It's late and I should be sleeping. I just had to get this off of my chest.

psychiatrist is going to call me in the AM from the psychiatric hospital to confirm the medication change and I'll confirm if the Seroquel stays or goes and which SSRI he's going to go with.

I'm sorry for rambling. Thanks for listening.

 

[RobinLaurain]

Pray for the best. It may work. I used to hate when they would adjust my sons medications. when he was out of the hospital. OMG! They had a 24 hour staff and couldn't handle him, but they expected me to. I used to sleep on the floor by his bedroom door so I could hear if he was getting out of bed at night. Since, I have been reading all your posts the memories come back of all my family has gone through. I thank you all. My inertia has ended tonight. Tomorrow, I will enter life again. I have been through a lot more than I am going through now and survived. It takes reading what others are experiencing to get out of your own funk. I wish you the best of luck. Do they have a safety plan initiated for your family if he does need to be hospital.? Just curious.

 

[flutterbee]

I don't blame you for being nervous. I fail to understand why they fail to do the (obviously) needed evaluations, but are so quick to put him on medications that could have adverse reactions - given that he doesn't seem to have a firm diagnosis. That just has me at a loss.

Go with your gut. (((HUGS))))

 

[totoro]

Sending lots of hugs!!! I know exactly how you are feeling... when our psychiatrist said AD to me I said the same thing you did...
It is almost as if sometimes they just throw out the medications they are comfortable with, regardless of the diagnosis.

For us our psychiatrist was like oh let's try a stimulant... or an AD. I am like, Um, I may be out of line here but... what about inducing mania???

They act like it is no harm to the child and you just deal with it if it happens!!! We will just change medications, ho hum... everyone is happy...

Good luck and yes, go with your gut!!! and if you decide to try the medication... bug those doctor's... if you think something is wrong.

 

[Hound dog]

Nope, I don't blame you at all for being nervous.

When we switched from 1st psychiatrist to 2nd psychiatrist with Nichole (the one she has now) 2nd one didn't want her on the abilify. I wanted to strangle her. Nichole went months without before psychiatric hospital stay and another psychiatrist prescibed (in hospital) before our psychiatrist would give it back. Now psychiatrist knows what I was talking about.

Can you push for evaluations before you make the firm decision on medications?

Remember, you can always say No if that's what your gut tells you to do.

Hugs

 

[oceans]

Good Luck! This seems to be the way it starts. We went through this same thing. The stimulants first, the SSRI's, the AP. I know our psychiatrist has a protocol he must follow, and a mood stabilizer always seems to be a last alternative. So strange that they will not do testing!!! I am hoping that things go well with the SSRI...

 

[timer lady]

Alison,

I let psychiatrists go their merry way medication wise until I had a true picture of how the tweedles responded. I then put my foot down in a very big way to any suggestions of a medication that would destabilize my children further.

I had to get a few years under my belt; fire a few psychiatrists - our current psychiatrist & I have a grudging & mutual respect for one another.

I'd be nervous as well. And I don't have the prescription pad. Having said that, I refused to allow stimulants or ADs on board after a certain point. Just wasn't worth it.

Good luck - this is always an experiment in terror.

 

[BusynMember]

Doctors do seem to go stims, antidepressants than mood stabilizers. Unfortunately, our kids often have to suffer horrible side effects before they decide that activating medications make particular kids worse. I used to do whatever the doctors told me, but now I question. I feel they used my son as a guinea pig, throwing medications at him "to see if they work." If you are in any way hesitant, I'd get another opinion. We found that getting second, even third opinions gave us perspective and more to think about. In the end, the ADHD medications (which made him mean and aggressive) and the bipolar medications (with which he had various reactions) and the antidepressant (blatant manic reaction) were all wrong for our son. He does better off medications completely, but he had just so many wrong diagnosis. Trust your mom gut. Go with it. in my opinion your bad feeling is a reason to do more research. I wish we had. Doctors can be wrong, and my son is proof. He had neither ADHD/ODD nor bipolar. He had high functioning autism, which mimics both. Unfortunately, there are no blood tests. As moms, we need to educate ourselves so we can be knowledgeable when doctors made medicine suggestions. I was too easily bullied by doctors and hope I can pass along the message to others that questioning too much is, in my opinion, better than questioning too little. If you like, get a neuropsychologist's opinion. They do extensive testing which can point you in the direction of what problems your child has in all areas--and then you have a lot more info on your child. I hate when doctors just guess. I mean, it's ALWAYS a guess, but, jeesh, at least give every child a comprehensive neuropsychologist exam before touting drugs. You, in my opinion, get a much better idea of what is truly going on and what may help. Some kids don't need medications at all. Some clearly do NOT need stimulants so why should the wrong child take them? Some kids have elusive diagnosis. Keep persevering. We had too. It wasn't fun, but it was worth it in the end. Take care and good luck :smile:

 

[smallworld]

Alison, this is a very tough decision. I agree with MWM to keep pushing for answers. Unfortunately, when your difficult child is in the psychiatric hospital, you can't exactly go for an outside second opinion. But when the psychiatrist calls you today, press him for answers. How much has the psychiatrist talked to him and observed him since he's been in the psychiatric hospital? Why an SSRI? Does he see any symptoms besides anxiety?

I will also share the flip side -- a success story -- with the SSRI Prozac (which by the way is the only SSRI aproved for childhood depression). You weren't on the board last summer when my easy child/difficult child 3 developed a choking phobia that led to complete refusal to eat. She lost so much weight that she was hospitalized and fed through an NG tube. Following a 5-day hospitalization in which her weight was stabilized, she spent 5 weeks in the hospital's day treatment program. The staff tried behavior modification techniques to break through her anxiety, but after 2 weeks, told us we had no choice but to try an SSRI. We were petrified because both our son and our older daughter had experienced manic reactions to SSRIs (Zoloft in my son's case and Paxil in my daughter's case). Although easy child/difficult child 3 did rage (from anxiety and developing depression from not eating), the staff felt she really only had severe anxiety and nothing else. So we cautiously went forward. The nice thing about Prozac is that it comes in a liquid form, and you can go really, really slowly. We started at 2 mg and went up in 2 mg increments every 2 to 3 weeks. It took longer this way, but we felt we could be more on top of potential side effects. Today, she is up to 18 mg and doing great. She is eating normally and participating in life as a normal 8-year-old girl. I couldn't be happier with her response to Prozac.

Having told you this story, I can't possibly tell you what to do. I can't possibly know the ins and outs of your son's situation. Only you and the docs observing him can know what to do. On this board, I think we get a skewed view that SSRIs are evil and will always cause a manic reaction. I just wanted you to know that some kids do really well on SSRIs. In my daughter's case, Prozac gave her a new lease on life.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[On_Call]

I think that for so many of us there seems to be, unfortunately, a missing 'puzzle piece' when it comes to our difficult children.

We have been through a huge medication issue with difficult child in the past few months. His lithium level went to toxic stages and he was removed from that. A month later, he was hospitalized and removed from seroquel also. His thyroid function was being compromised and we weighed the pros and cons of the medications and came to realize that I don't believe there was ever a huge difference between difficult child before the lithium and seroquel and difficult child on the medications.

Our difficult child is now on welbutrin. We don't see any adverse affects right now, but I often wonder if he wouldn't be just as well on no medications at all.

Do your continued research and go with your gut. The doctors have case loads of children and we are dealing with just ours. They will listen to us, but I definitely had to find my voice, that's for sure.

Hugs to you. You can see by this thread that there are many of us strapped into the roller coaster ride with you.

 

[Alisonlg]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I appreciate each and every one of you. I really just needed to get that out of my system so I could go to sleep...even though it still took several more hours to do so.

My stomach is in knots...I feel my heart starting to pound...don't know if I want to puke or cry first...perhaps it's time to start that anti-anxiety Rx my Dr called in for me! LMAO. (gotta laugh through all of this, right?)

This Dr hasn't really spent much of any time with M. He saw M on Friday after his ER admit Thursday night, but he was so doped up and sleepy from raging all day and then all of the Ativan that he was basically unresponsive. Then he saw him on Monday (yesterday) as a totally different kid. He asked me what my biggest concerns were and I said the raging and the fact that I can't get him anywhere (school, program, psychiatrist, etc).

My gut tells me he's got more than anxiety going on, which is why I'm so petrified of the SSRI. But, the Dr is right, we won't know until we try it. In a way, I suppose the success or failure of this medication trial could either help confirm or deny my BiPolar (BP) suspicion. I mean, heck, I'd much rather it just be anxiety and have a simple SSRI be the "fix" than worry about mood stabalizers and possible blood draws and liver enzymes and all of that jazz.

There I go rambling again. Sorry. :frown: