Tweaking medications, fingers crossed...

gcvmom

Here we go again!
'cuz we're running out of time before school starts.

psychiatrist appointment today went fine. He agrees that sedation is still an issue with difficult child 2 and that clearly the Seroquel XR is not holding him at his current dose. We're increasing it to 500mg tonight and should hopefully see results in the next couple of days, plus lowering the Depakote ER to 250mg (to help with the sedation as well). He also talked about dosing him more than once a day as an option. He also said that if this doesn't work, we may drop the Seroquel and switch to something like Tegretol.

He agreed that stimulants are not an option anymore after I described how difficult child 2 responded to just 5mg of Focalin recently (focused but tense, irritable, and then explosive when it wore off).

So we're on to the next part of the journey towards stabilization (I hope, I hope, I hope). Tomorrow he'll try day camp again... yesterday went pretty well, so hopefully he'll do o.k. again. And maybe by Monday the dosage increase will be working...
 

smallworld

Moderator
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, too.

My son's sedation lifted when we switched him from 400 mg Seroquel XR to 600 mg regular Seroquel. He's also less irritable and less shut down. One week after the increase, he's doing beautifully.

I hope the same holds true for your son.
 

klmno

Active Member
Good luck!! At least you have a plan "b" to pursue if this doesn't work... It has a good shot though- our psychiatrist said the same thing about seroquel (it works as a sedative until it is at a higher dose).
 

Sara PA

New Member
Tegretol? A neurologist I was seeing told me to switch from Dilantin to Tegretol -- just stop taking the Dilantin and start taking what she felt was an equivilent dose of Tegretol. The first day I got up, made breakfast, went potty, came back downstairs, fell on the sofa and didn't move for four hours. I wasn't exactly asleep the whole time but I couldn't function at all. I didn't take another dose until I got a new neurologist who put me on a schedule that made the switch over two months, IIRC. I wasn't aware of how much sedation and cognitive dulling I was experiencing on the Tegretol until I stopped taking it completely. Then it was like a cloud lifted.
 
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