Jena

New Member
hi

can someone please help give me their experience with ssri's which is a medication we do not use for difficult child due to her reaction to it.

pysch doctor wouldnt' see her today or medicate her. long story on other thread. put call into peds to get her medication in the meantime while i'm working on calling another pysch to get her in this week.

i want to get a few names of them to throw past her peds and than he'll double check them and prescribe what he feels he's most comfortable with.

i looked into lexapro a bit and fluxetine yet those durin clinical trials had a high rate of kids becoming more suicidal when taking and also volatile. we def do not want that.

any thoughts or ideas on this for me? him and i are talking in the a.m. about her.
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
Like the rest of the medications used here, it's very individual. I did well on Zoloft in the morning and Pamelor at night, whereas my half-sister was put on Zoloft and ended up hospitalized for a suicide attempt within 3 days. I also did well on Wellbutrin and so poorly on Effexor (not sure if same class) I only ever took two doses of the Effexor. I've seen others here with nasty reactions to Wellbutrin.
 

smallworld

Moderator
Here's a link to some information on the National Institute of Mental Health website on antidepressant medication for children and adolescents suffering from depression:

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topi...-information-for-parents-and-caregivers.shtml

The only SSRI that is FDA-approved for the treatment of depression in children is Prozac. All SSRIs carry a "black box" warning indicating that the use of SSRIs may increase the risk of suicidal thinking or behavior in some children and adolescents with depression. However, no completed suicides occurred among the 2,200 children treated with SSRIs in an FDA review.
 

bby31288

Active Member
I take prozac 20 mg in the summer, 40 mgs in the winter. difficult child takes wellbutrin 450 mg. I was on Celexa no change, Effexor was god awful to wean off, if you missed a dose, I would get these awful brain shocks. It was the most disturbing feeling. To finally wean off Effexor I had to go to the lowest dosage, then open the capsul and take out 5 little balls, then the next day i took out 6 little balls...and the point goes on.

difficult child was also on Lexapro for some time, but for her it caused a lot of weight gain.
 

Josie

Active Member
I'm pretty sure Lexapro is approved for depression in adolescents age 12 - 17.

One of my girls is on it now at 12 and the other was on it when she was younger, even before it was approved for 12 year olds. Neither one of them gained weight on it or had other noticeable side effects.

The downside I see in Lexapro is that missing even one dose caused very volatile behaviour in my older one. A very extreme version of what she was like before she started the Lexapro. It was scary. With a teenager, out on her own at times, I would want to be very sure that she was taking it every day without fail.
 

smallworld

Moderator
I stand corrected. Hope is right -- Lexapro is FDA approved for use in adolescents ages 12-17 for the treatment of MDD (major depressive disorder).
 

Jena

New Member
hi guys and thx i do appreciate it. you know it's odd difficult child has had problems since literally birth and i'm soo unfortunately used to the endless roller coaster ride. yet easy child is my easy child enough said there lol. and she is very very depressed and we knewi t for a while. yet she wouldnt' adhere to therapy etc. now that window is finally open and i'm trying to rush in yet no one is there on the other side to help. the quickest evaluation i can get here is next week right before xmas, at 300 a pop which he will than tell me ok she's got major depressive disorder single episode. i already know it. you know how u just know as a mom? so i gotta book it anyway and we gotta come up with the cash. had it been difficult child's pyschiatrist they would of worked with-us on payment.

you know the pyschiatrists say there "there" for us. yet they aren't we take the script home, fill it and call with-side effects and hope someone is there to answer the phone. so yea i'm praying the peds will write it for me he might not. if i were him i probably wouldnt'. with difficult child it's different he's known her literally for years and her troubles. easy child he knows zero of her. i hope i dont' put him in an odd position by asking because him and i have become friends.

i told her she cant' even go out right now. i need her home right now till we start the medication. she stated she didnt' want to go to school. i said here's the deal i can fix it with school that you get out till the medication gets in you, and you begin to even out yet with-work being picked up each and everyday. i said it's not about running away it's about being true to yourself right now how your feeling and the thoughts your having and giving yourself a chance to balance out again and get to a better place to be able to handle all that will come your way in that bldg.

she said she'd think on it tonight adn let me know. i have to admit how incredibly different she is. it's odd. no arguments or fighting. just alot of moping around, and trying to say busy. she's such a bright kid. she is doing everything with us doesn't want to be alone. organizing cabinets, helping with whatever she can find to do around the house. she's reaching out in a way i've never seen.

i just love this kid so much. it kills me to hear her say those words and to know that she really means it. and to also know that our life with difficult child has strongly contributed to her mind set right now.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Jena, others have said it, but I'll say it too. No doctor on the face of the earth can tell which medication will work (or if any will) for any one person of any age. It's all experimenting and hit/miss. I was thirty-five before I was put on Paroxatene, the first medication that helped me (it is toxic to some people). Zoloft put me in the h ospital in two weeks on only 50 mgs. Prozac made me so depressed I was worse on it than off it. Amitripytlene and Tofrinil made me hallucinate. By the time I was offered Paroxatene, I was so fed up and desperate, I had gone only to ask for ECT. The doctor told me to try Paroxatene first. I didn't expect it to work and it didn't at first, but six weeks later I felt like a new person. Took me by surprise. I'm still on it.

There is no way to know for sure what works for any one person. Every one has a different body chemistry. I hope that blood test we all want comes soon! Good luck.
 

pepperidge

New Member
Jen,

Just remember that an SSRI can take a month or more to become fully effective against depression. So if you have an serious concerns about suicide don't hesitate to hospitalize your easy child. I know, you wouldn't want to do that, but I would be very careful, particularly as you start up the SSRI.

Also on difficult child, my son is on a combo of risperdal and Lamictal. Risperdal really helped cut down on the more out of control behavior. Lamictal has been a total godsend on dealing with irritability and depression. We have seen no real side effects of either (he's on a pretty low dose of Risperdal).
Son #2 had some dystonic reactions to Abilify though it did work a but on impulsiveness.
 

Jena

New Member
i know you guys, just had zero experience with-ssri's because difficult child can't take them. I just wanted some personal experiences with-it if anyone else had their teens on it. i'l be honest ssri's make me a bit nervous def. as far as the hospitalization i just dont know right now. i have the evaluation set up for next week. we are heading to that spa this this weekend, i said to husband i'm a bit nervous putting her on it than leaving on saturday i dont' know how she'll feel.

she seems alot calmer since she's been bubblized with us here yet that isnt' real life. i wanted to do a natural thing yet husband saId honey that isnt' going to work for her. i just thought it would be worth a try since i know ssri's will takea while to hit the system.

i took lexapro and within 6 days i wanted to drive my truck into a wall yet i knew those side effects and was able to know it was coming from the medication and i stopped it immediately yet she wont' know where it's coming from.

i wanted to try some st johns' wort some b complex until evaluation next week.
 

bby31288

Active Member
What about starting some 5 HTP? My youngest easy child/difficult child has started taking it about 3 weeks ago, and she tells me she is feeling much better. She takes 100 mg, 2x daily. She is 16. I have been on the search for the 200 mg timed relased so she only has to take it once a day. But so far no luck in the "local" stores.
 

Jena

New Member
thanks for the idea, and yea i've heard of that also we tried it for difficult child yet nothing natural and i mean nothing natural stops her in her tracks. easy child began zoloft today 25mg. doctor called in 50mg so i cut it to 25mg. i think due to the suicidal words we had to go medication as opposed to natural. alot of times also that whole i'm taking something placebo affect kicks in. here is hoping. i gotta watch her like a hawk the doctor said for side effects and suicidal ****. yup i'm hating my life right now something fierce. was bad before with difficult child all day long yet now easy child's home too. it's like a jail sentence because i can't leave easy child home alone now at all. yup pity party today for me and totaly selfish today.
 
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