Experiencing bad side-effects on Zoloft?

July 31, 2002

Our 6-yr-old son has been on Zoloft for 2.5 weeks now (first time on

Zoloft; many different SSRIs used to date). He appears to have

bouts of " rage " in which he says things like " I hate you " , " I want

new parents " , " I want to die " , " I'm not going home with you " . These

episodes are generally not prompted by some sort of catalyst. He is

like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! He also opened the car door while we

were driving down the road (Thank God he had his seatbelt on!) in an

attempt to get out of the car. (We now have the child door lock on

of course). This is the first time in his life he has ever done

this! He then ran out the front door as soon as we got home, and

had to be retrieved and locked in his bedroom for safety. On a

recent plane trip, he verbalized that he said " I want to jump out of

the airplane " . Has anyone else experienced these kinds of

disturbing episodes? Dr. Goldberg says his brain is probably

adjusting to the medication, we need to ride this out, and he SHOULD

come out better on the other " side " ! As a parent, I want him OFF

the medication so he doesn't hurt himself!!! We have a phone appt.

w/him for tomorrow, but I wanted to find out if anyone on this

website had any experience with this and could give me their input.

Thanks!

Heidi Arnn

July 31, 2002

Heidi,

My son experienced similar unprovoked emotional outbursts (sobbing,

yelling, despair) when he was switched from Paxil to Celexa, although

not as extreme as what you're describing. We were advised to

increase the dosage but that didn't help and I insisted on going back

to Paxil, which was working well in the first place. I was not

willing to stick out out any longer. My only advice is to keep Dr.

Goldberg's office advised daily of any extreme reactions like this.

Best wishes,

Vicki

> Our 6-yr-old son has been on Zoloft for 2.5 weeks now (first time

on

> Zoloft; many different SSRIs used to date). He appears to have

> bouts of " rage " in which he says things like " I hate you " , " I want

> new parents " , " I want to die " , " I'm not going home with you " .

These

> episodes are generally not prompted by some sort of catalyst. He

is

> like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! He also opened the car door while we

> were driving down the road (Thank God he had his seatbelt on!) in

an

> attempt to get out of the car. (We now have the child door lock on

> of course). This is the first time in his life he has ever done

> this! He then ran out the front door as soon as we got home, and

> had to be retrieved and locked in his bedroom for safety. On a

> recent plane trip, he verbalized that he said " I want to jump out

of

> the airplane " . Has anyone else experienced these kinds of

> disturbing episodes? Dr. Goldberg says his brain is probably

> adjusting to the medication, we need to ride this out, and he

SHOULD

> come out better on the other " side " ! As a parent, I want him OFF

> the medication so he doesn't hurt himself!!! We have a phone appt.

> w/him for tomorrow, but I wanted to find out if anyone on this

> website had any experience with this and could give me their input.

> Thanks!

> Heidi Arnn

August 1, 2002

Heidi, unfortunately I know exactly what you are talking about. Every child

is different, but I think there are some children who have a hard time with

the SSRI's. I have two kids and they had completely different

responses. My older son could tolerate a fairly high dose of an SSRI. The

younger one has bad reactions to some and has never been able to do well on

anything but a lower dose.

As he has gotten better his tolerance has improved somewhat. If we go too

high we don't seem to get the terrible meltdown rages, but definitely a

personality change and other effects. We want the SSRI for the protective

effects, but it needs to be the right one at the right dose.