new diagnosis today

lordhelpme

New Member
well we saw the psychiatrist today and he thinks difficult child is bipolar II. i told him sw thought conduct and he said conduct tendencies but not actual cd.

he put difficult child on trileptal so if any of you have had experience in with-this medication i could use your imput.

so now i have 3 different diagnosis going on. psychiatrist with-bipolar, sw with-cd and school with-odd.

any suggestions are welcome at this point.

off now to do some research!

thanks everyone.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Honestly, I would take the sw's and school's opinion on the matter and toss it right out the window. The psychiatrist is the trained professional.

As for trileptol, N has taken it for 3 yrs and done very well with it.

(((hugs)))
 

smallworld

Moderator
I would certainly not give much weight to dxes by a SW or the school, especially when their dxes describe behaviors that generally improve once the underlying cause (for example, ADHD, bipolar, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), etc) is identified and treated.

psychiatrists are the right professionals for dxing mood issues (anxiety, depression, bipolar, etc), but they can miss Autistic Spectrum Disorders and learning disabilities. For this reason, we often recommend an additional evaluation by a neuropsychologist. Neuropsychologists can be found at children's and university hospitals.

Trileptal is an anticonvulsant/mood stabilizer used to treat bipolar disorder. While I have no first-hand knowledge of this medication, I have read that it has a low side-effect profile and is often prescribed for younger children.

Glad you're making progress.
 
difficult child 1 has been on trileptal for over a year now. For us, it has been a blessing!!!

The psychiatrist originally put difficult child 1 on trileptal because it doesn't require frequent blood draws. difficult child 1 is afraid of needles. Also, psychiatrist said there were minimal, if any, side effects. difficult child 1 does not do well with any sort of physical discomfort, even if it is only minor.

difficult child 1 was started on a very low dose. The dose was gradually increased over the course of many months. This was because if difficult child 1 had any type of side effect, it would have been nearly impossible to get him to take it!!!

We didn't notice any change in difficult child 1's behavior for at least 2-3 months. I think this was partly because the drug needed to build up in his system, and partly because we had to increase it so gradually.

Once it began working, life improved for difficult child 1 and for the rest of the family too!!! difficult child 1 no longer experiences the extreme mood swings he used to have almost on a daily basis, going from hyper and extremely silly one minute, to a violent rage the next.

Also, difficult child 1 hasn't experienced any weight change since he has been on it. He has been sleeping better too. He used to go through periods where he would be up all night prior to taking trileptal.

I hope this post helps you a bit. Thinking of you and hoping trileptal helps your difficult child too. WFEN
 
O

OTE

Guest
Call my kid purple with blue stripes, I don't care. I don't care what the diagnosis label is, just find something that works for him! I don't worry about diagnosis labels, it just doesn't mean much in young kids.
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Many of our difficult children start out with one diagnosis then move onto another because of symptoms, maturity & such.

To get a full picture you will probably have to consider a full evaluation. Look under multi-disciplinary evaluations. It's multi faceted with psychiatrist, neuro-psychiatric's, therapist & physical exams.

In the meantime, OTE has some good advice. You are in survival mode. Use what behavioral, medical or therapeutic intervention to help your difficult child.

We'll be behind you in your search for answers for difficult child. :warrior:
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I would go with the psychiatrist. It's probably a "working diagnosis" meaning that, because of his age, it could change as he gets older, but ODD and CD are both kind of, in my opinion, worhtless diagnosis. Every child with a particular disorder pretty much has ODD behavior so that's not useful. CD is supposed to be for kids older than 18. The psychiatrist has the medical degree, not the SW or the school. Even a psycologist has no MD, and psychiatric disorders are medical disorders--chemical imbalances. They aren't behavior problems, although they can cause them due to the illness. I also recommend getting a neuropsychologist on board. They do intensive testing, and can spot neurological disorders that psychiatrists often miss, like Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). But as for the ODD and CD, I'd kind of dismiss them and see if maybe mood stabilizers help your child (you have to give a drug like Trileptal at least eight weeks and if it doesn't work another mood stabilzier may do the trick. These are not "quick fix" medications--they take time to build in the system). I'm surprised the psychiatrist said bipolarII. It's hard to tell what kind of bipolar a child has--if indeed the child really has bipolar, the type of bipolar is clearer as the child gets older. I hope this works for you.
 
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