Update - difficult child still in psychiatric hospital

[jal]

Just got back from visitng difficult child and meeting with-his dr. On Mon they thought he would not be there throughout this upcoming weekend. Now they say he is. I don't have another meeting until next Wed. As of tomorrow all his medications from before will be done. We were nearing the end of a medication wash when he was hospitalized. His outside psychiatrist wants to now address ADHD first. So they started Ritalin 5 mg 2x a day. He's been on 7 different stims and none work. They will see that. difficult child is handling this very well (he is only 6). He usually has a huge amount of anxiety where we are concerned. Wanting to constantly know where we are, when we are coming etc. He doesn't seem to be doing that. Even goes a night here and there without calling us. He wants to come home, but isn't melting down or freaking out when we leave.

husband is another story. Everytime we go he cries and gets PO'd that difficult child is there. I think I have detached a bit (I know when difficult child was home I was) I hate to say that because he is so young, but someone has to have a clear head in all this. husband says we can do this at home -well if we could we wouldn't be in this mess would we? Trying to get difficult child straightened up before school. difficult child can't go back to daycare before school starts (even with the para services). School just called to lend support and to tell us that they care and will help. I love my school district. They have been wonderful. At least in all this mess I have that one bight spot.

Anyone have experience with Seroquel (sp?). They mentioned that may be something they might try.

 

[busywend]

Why oh Why would they treat ADHD before BiPolar (BP)?????????

That is completely backwards from everything I have ever read.

 

[bran155]

I agree with busywend, I can't believe that they want to address the ADHD first!!! My daughter was treated for years with stims for ADHD to no avail. In fact they only made her worse. Finally, her first hospitalization, the doctor said that her BiPolar (BP) was primary and was a much bigger concern than the ADHD. Back then I was very new to this game so I just went along with what ever I was told, believing "the professionals" knew what they were talking about. Well half of them didn't. I would much rather my daughter be hyper and unable to sit still then go into a manic episode. I think sometimes we must choose which would be the lesser of the 2 evils. We still struggle with this issue as my daughter loves to be on Concerta as it keeps her nice and thin. In fact she just came off it again, she convinced her psychiatrist that she needed it, I disagreed but he asked me to give it a shot one more time and of course I won that argument, she is no longer on it.

Just wanted to share my experience. Good luck.

 

[Wiped Out]

I'm glad difficult child is handling the hospital as well as he is-I think it's harder on us than them at times.

I too am surprised they want to treat the ADHD before the Bipolar. My difficult child has been on every stimulant there is and while they work on the hyper symptoms they bring out a whole lot of raging.

Seroquel works well for many. It didn't work at all well for my difficult child-he raged so much on it but that was just his experience.

 

[smallworld]

I'm glad your difficult child is handling the psychiatric hospital as well as he is. I agree with the others about stimulants. When my son entered a partial hospitalization program last winter, his psychiatrist told us to d/c his stimulant on the first day and just focus on the mood issues.

We've had great success with Seroquel. It has addressed my son's anxiety, depression and mania. What some psychiatrists don't realize, however, is that you might have to go quite high for adequate symptom relief. My son was up to 800 mg in the PHP; this summer we've been able to decrease it to 600 mg. When we go lower than that, his anxiety, depression and oppositional behaviors return.

Hang in there.