Jena

New Member
Hi!

New physdoc prescribed prozac to difficult child today. She has major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, social anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), some minor tics, sleep issues, manic issues, adhd...........

anyhow, we sat down and were trying to figure out (yup another dr. who looks to me for answers, why i just don't know), what to tackle first so we agreed anxiety is worst issue at hand, and sleep........

so he said let's give prozac a try. i'm hesistant i am. i know of prozac, this is the drug that kids become violent on a percentage that is, that kids want to kill themselves.....

i said isn't there just an anxiety lowering medication we can administer at this point, being i've tried the antipyshcotics to no great avail, instead of Prozac? so i dropped at pharmacy but my gut just isn't sure on this one. i know, trust the dr. i keep telling myself i've been thru alot of them. when they **** me off, i get rid of them and find a new one.. :)

yet it's time to trust. yet prozac? ugh. anyone had any experience with this?

thanks!!!
 

smallworld

Moderator
Has your difficult child ever taken an SSRI before? Celexa, Lexapro, Zoloft, Paxil, to name a few? If so, what was her reaction?

Prozac is FDA-approved for major depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in children. It is considered first-line treatment for anxiety in children, according to NIMH researchers.

Unfortunately, medications are a trial-and-error process. The only way you'll know how your difficult child will react is if you try it.

I have two kids who took Prozac. My son had a 3-hour rage reaction that resulted in a broken window after taking it for one day. Needless to say, we never gave it to him again. My younger daughter was on Prozac for several months, but after reaching 20 mg, we decided it was causing disinhibition so we discontinued it.

Hope you have the success with Prozac that eluded us. Good luck.
 

klmno

Active Member
Yep, and after my son had been on a very low dose for a year, he started "acting out" in school, so we doubled the dose. Then school called and said he was out of control (thinking it was a behavioral-ie, ODD issue) and they were putting him on long term suspension. I kept him on the prozac because it had just been doubled about 10 days earlier and stupid me thought it just hadn't had time to take effect. Then his friends "rejected" him the next day and two days later, my son was bouncing off the walls and I thought it was because he had been grounded and it was the first pretty spring day so I told him he could go play but be back at such-a-such time (which amounted to 1 hr 45 mins). In that time, my son racked up 7 legal charges, that included B&E and felony arson for dropping lit matches around his feet and stomping on them then walking away, however, the matches hadn't all gone out. So now he has 2 felonies, has been through all kinds of legal stuff (I had to appear in court 14 times in about as many months) and he still has legal issues, but he did break the law this past spring which contributed to his legal problems. Although, he was put on mood stabilizers after that incident and has improved a lot. He did break the law this past spring but what he did was nothing as compared to what he'd done on that other "crime spree". If I had it to do over, I would not agree to prozac unless I thought my child was an inch away from suicide- and actually, I did think my son was at that point when I did agree to it. But, I did not have any knowledge about the mood disorder spectrum, symptoms of mood cycling, how prozac can trigger this if the predisposition is there, etc.

That's just our experience- take all things into consideration. I continually hear that prozac has saved many kids' lives.
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
K has never tried Prozac. I have personally. I did not like the way it made me feel. But I have BiPolar (BP). I actually hated it.
But like many medications. they can get a bad wrap due to a few huge stories or over RX'ing. My father in law has taken it for years, he has done great on it.
It is just like Lithium, it has a bad rep. in some peoples minds, but both have saved a lot of peoples lives.
Read up, go slow and start low. If you choose to start it. Journal all reactions and stick with your gut. If it seems bad, call psychiatrist.
Good luck.

*KLMNO's above post is worth reading just so you know what to watch for. I don't think I would give it to K, who has BiPolar (BP), unless she was stable and needed it for anxiety. But even then I would be nervous. But I would be with any AD.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Well, you can try. I will relay our three experiences with Prozac: Mine, my now 24 year old daughter (16 when she took it) and my son (7 when he took it).
1/Me: It helped at first, almost made me silly, maybe hypo-manicky. Then it stopped working and I got very depressed. I couldn't stay awake while on Prozac and would fall asleep at work (this is an odd reaction, but it happened to me). I had horrible nightmares and weird sleep habits. After two months, because I was so depressed on it, my medications were switched.
2/Daughter: She was one of those who pulled a knife on herself while on Prozac. She said it made her lose her inhibitions; made her uber-impulsive, and she didn't like it--made her nervous. She ended up in phospital.
3/Son--Very manic. Took one pill and we got our first and only call ever from school. Son is on autism spectrum (we didn' tknow it at the time--it was for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)/ADHD which they thought he had). He kept getting on his desk and jumping off of it, saying "I can fly" and laughing.
Wish I could give you better news and I'm sure it has helped a lot of people. All SSRIs can cause the same problems, however Paxil helps me a lot. I know plenty of people who can't take Paxil at all. It's hit or miss. These are just our experiences.
 

klmno

Active Member
Read up, go slow and start low. If you choose to start it. Journal all reactions and stick with your gut. If it seems bad, call psychiatrist.
Good luck.

I think that is the key- if I had known what to watch for and what hypomanic or mania symptoms were, I could have stopped it. But I too, was becoming convinced that difficult child had depression and ODD. Now, I have heard a very well-known psychiatrist say that if depression is the primary problem, a person can take prozac (it is very well known for prevention of suicide under circumstances where there are not other issues), if it triggers mood cycling, a mood stabilizer can be added. In my layman's mind, I think of this as bipolar with a tendency toward the depressive end. This particular psychiatrist recommended this mix for my son, but his regular psychiatrist and I were a little too afraid of it, given my son's current situation with the law and his tendency to be self-destructive and dangerous if he's manic.
 

Jena

New Member
hi,

well, i appreciate your candor as always. all of you for taking the time to give me your experiences. difficult child was on lexapro once and was up for 4 or 5 days i can't remember, needless to say i pulled her. i told dr that yet he still said he's had great response to prozac!!!

did you guys know that many of the horrible shootings at high schools past so many years all kids were on prozac?

i'm a bit edgy about it because she can be manic on her own and shows great hyperactivity, so i'm not sure what my gut's saying about this medication. i'm trying to listen to the voices yet i can't hear them lol. ha ha

dr. just like you have to do something to help her let's start here, he kept saying prozac has a bad rep stop listening and reading. i said i'll never stop that.
 

smallworld

Moderator
What dose did the doctor recommend starting at? There is a liquid version that allows you to start at 2 mg and go up in 2 mg increments. That's how we started with my daughter.
 

klmno

Active Member
did you guys know that many of the horrible shootings at high schools past so many years all kids were on prozac?

Yes, but I have never heard of a judge accepting a prozac defense. Here, they don't even accept the plea "guilty by reason of insanity" for a juvenile. And that is about the only thing that could possibly be worse that suicide for difficult child- not being found guilty of this, but doing something like that.

I don't want to sound completely negative- I do still think of the option of prozac and a mood stabilizer for my son, given that he is depressive at times and a danger to himself when he is and that I believe anxiety is in his mix. But, read up and be prepared to call at the first sign of what most consider ODD, as Totoro suggested. in my humble opinion.
 

Andy

Active Member
My 12 yr old difficult child is on Fluoxetine (prozac). It has worked wonders for him. He is at 30 mg per day. I am going to ask that we start decreasing to see how he will do without it. It is our goal to be medication free and I feel that he is ready to try.

This is a very contraversial medication for kids and you need to feel good about it. If you are still unsure then ask for another way. Each kid is different and you know your child best. A success story is reassuring but doesn't mean it will work for you child. I hope you do find something that works.

It is Zoloft that I have heard kids getting suicidal, ect. A neighbor boy was given Zoloft after his dad died a terrible cancer death. It caused him to want to run out in traffic and other things that could kill him.

Clonazepam was also very helpful for difficult child for a short time. However, after about 3 - 4 months, difficult child started to become disrespectful to teachers and other kids. We believe Clonazepam contributed to this. Its purpose to hold down anxiety tends to hold it down so much that the kid has no fear of authority - becomes mouthy, ect. We took difficult child off the clonazepam this summer. Had to slowly decrease week by week. He is now no longer disrespectful.

Just wanted you to know that the fluoxetine was the right medication for my difficult child who has only been diagnosed with deep anxiety - he fell apart totaly last fall, had thoughts of self harm, thought he was evil, couldn't make it through a day. He was hospitalized for two weeks and discharged with fluoxetine and clonazepam.

These both helped difficult child control his anxiety until he mastered the coping skills on his own. There has always been that possibility that he will be medication free in the future. He has been doing so fantastic that I would like to try now - if it doesn't work than we will continue the medications.

Last Spring was the first time I saw very intense reactions from difficult child. He was the self proclaimed referree at school and very upset if someone did not follow the "rules" of the game. He did become violent in trying to keep one little girl from playing tag because she was too slow. He was going to push the girl that was about to tag the little girl. He did not want the little girl to be it. I happened to be on lunch/recess duty that day with two other moms so I intervened. difficult child was soooo angry - one mom was truly afraid that he was going to hit me.

There has been no problems since school was out last Spring. The kids now like him again. He is not threatening to anyone. You wouldn't even believe the nightmare we lived last year if you met him today. He is a very polite sensitive kid.
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
I've 2 nieces that are diagnosis'd severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD); the oldest of the 2 went on prozac at the tender age of 10 (she's graduated college at the top of her class in psychology & is heading for her doctorate). Both have done wonderful on prozac.

All I would offer is to watch your difficult child while on this medication. There is a need to have respect of these medications ~ doesn't matter who takes them.

I'd also like to offer that if I made decisions for medicating my children on the warnings/side effects they would never have used medications. The medications my difficult children take help them reach the highest level of functionality they can reach at this time. I'm respectful & watchful. I'm also grateful for the medications that have helped my kt reach the level she has & am hopeful that something will help wm.
 

janebrain

New Member
Hi,
my youngest dtr tried Prozac for what we thought was depression when she was 13. She became very "weird" on it--was maniacally laughing and very hyper. We discontinued it after 2 or 3 days of her being on it. Good luck! I think the others have given you great advice. In our case it was clear very quickly that it wasn't a good drug for her.
Jane
 

Jena

New Member
Adrianne

That's a great story i'm sorry you had to go through so very much, it can be so difficult on the kids and then ofcourse us. deep anxiety can truly case havoc in one's life it's amazing.

i'm glad to hear that prozac worked, and that your goal is to be medication free. i'm not one for drugs..........even though at times they assist greatly.

thanks for sharing your positive story

Jen
 

amazeofgrace

A maze of Grace - that about sums it up
it made both of my difficult child's evil!!

but it really depends on the kid, hoping it works for you guys!
 
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