Experience with Lexapro & Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?

[change]

Hey All,

Was out of town and stayed off the internet all that time. Was wierd. Anyway, I'm back! Missed y'all too!!!

My daughter is switching from Effexor 75mg to Lexapro 20mg. Supposedly to help her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). She also switched from ConcertaXR to AdderrallXR, and Topomax to Lamictal. I'm really glad about the Lamictal, she's been on it before.

Does anyone have experience with Lexapro? The neurospych chose it today because Pristiq was her first choice but isn't covered by my d's insurance. Effexor was making her too drowsy in the evenings and she couldn't get through HW and was not getting through her fine arts classes without moodiness most of the time.

Thanks as always for y'alls unending support & help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[smallworld]

My daughter has been taking 7.5 mg Lexapro since December 2006. It has helped her depression significantly. She also takes 175 mg Lamictal for mood instability and depression.

Is your psychiatrist making all those changes at once or one at a time? If you do the changes all at once, you will have no idea what's working and what's not. Plus your difficult child may suffer some unnecessary side effects.

 

[change]

I totally agree with you about switching them all at once. This doctor is a little unconventional but all psychiatrists that we've ever seen seem to be.

She's been on Lamictal before...it worked. (It was a different doctor.) She switched from the Concerta last week....will be starting the Lexapro tomorrow. We had at least one week on the Adderrall without the Lexapro. I won't REALLY know if anything is helpin until academic school begins again. She is the type that behaves so much better in the summer when I'm off work and am with her most of the day. I keep telling her I can't follow her around forever and that she has to learn to start functioning without me being in the room. It's sad. She totally falls apart when I'm not around, then she gets into a rut and acts out all over the place. We're working on her behavior with 2 therapists twice a week but the incident with her brother set her back BIG TIME. We're back to square one.

Thanks...

 

[Josie]

I loved Lexapro when I took it. I was never diagnosis'ed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) but after my daughter was, I recognized some Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) thoughts of my own. The Lexapro helped with that. It made me realize that it wasn't normal to be worried about things all the time.

My daughter, who does have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), never tried Lexapro for it. She did try a lot of other SSRI's for it which seemed to help with the obsessive thoughts. Unfortunately, she was never able to stay on them for long because of other side effects from them.

I hope it works for your daughter.

 

[OpenWindow]

I took Lexapro for awhile and it worked well for mild depression. The only reason I'm not still taking it is because I can't afford it.

difficult child took it for years to help with his "rigid thinking" and some minor Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) tendencies. Lexapro is actually taken from Celexa, and from what my doctor said, has less side effects than the other SSRIs. In fact, difficult child was on Zoloft which was helping, but he started getting tics, so we discontinued that and started Lexapro. I think it's worth a try.

 

[change]

Thanks for the replies. We still don't have it. The pharmacy says they need a doctor authorization before insurance will cover it. In the meantime, I had looked up side effects and of course was horrified, however, I know most anti-depressants sound scary if you look up side effects. At this point, I'm almost willing to try anything. She's out of control. Today, I was only about 2 minutes late and found her involved in a food incident already at the fine arts academy while she was on break. Everyday, I go out of my way, even in this high-gas economy, to go back up to the academy for each and every break to monitor her. She admits to hoping I won't show up so she can give in to her food Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) behaviors. It's awful. Before anyone starts posting tips, YES, I DO send her with her own snacks, etc. Nothing has worked. She will pester other kids for money or even steal, just to get food from the vending machines. I've seen other kids buggingeach other for money too but this is beyond that. She doesn't care at all if she ostracizes every last kid begging them over and over again. She's not always this way but we have NEVER had this food compulsion totally under control. It gets more severe if she thinks she's getting away with it at all.

 

[Sara PA]

Given a choice where I had to put my child on an antidepressant, my choice would be Lexapro especially over Effexor. If you think Lexapro looks scary, you probably don't know that Wyeth sent letters to health care professionals back in 2003 stating that Effexor should not be prescribed for children or adolescents because it was neither safe nor effective for them. It warns not only about the suicidal behavior associated with all antidepressants but about hostility and self harming.

As you probably know, Lexapro isn't approved for use by children or adolescents either because it failed to prove itself safe or effective in clinical trials. That's pretty much the norm for antidepressants. The recommended dose for adults is 10 mg. There has been no benefit found in clinical studies to taking 20 mg.

 

[change]

Sara,

Definitely. I WAS horrified to read about Effexor. I was mad at myself for not researching it before my daughter began it. A co-worker takes it and raved about it so I just took his word for it. I also know someone on Lexapro but she's a young adult and does not have the same issues as my daughter. She only takes 10mg and said the takes double on bad days and that it helps. I was surprised that my daughter was prescribed 20mg. I'm wondering if I should say something but I'm also worried about withdrawal symptoms from the Effexor. We already witnessed that a few months ago when she was irresponsible and dropped the pill in the morning and didn't bother looking for it. It was AWFUL. We didn't know what was going on until we found the pill ourselves on the floor the next day. We're so lucky one of our pets didn't get into it.

 

[change]

Well today is the first day on Lexapro for daughter. Wish us luck...

 

[OpenWindow]

I hope it works as well for her as it did for us. I think my difficult child was on 20 mg. Keep us updated.