Question aout SSRI's and anti-psychotics

[Guest guest]

I wanted to run something by any of you that have kids that have been on SSRI's

and got the hyper, " manic " reaction to them, than went on to the anti-psychotics

instead.

This is the case with my son, and is now on his 3rd anti-psychotic, and is still

acting the same , hyper and manic. He was never ever hyper until given the

SSRI.He was on Prozac and Zoloft.

Have any of your kids gone back to another SSRI after this?Maybe try a less

energizing SSRI?

I'm just curious, because I'm going to bring it up at the next dr.appt. I can't

see having my ds on an antipsychotic, when he could be on an SSRI which is so

much safer. He responds the same to both. His " bad thoughts " have improved with

both types of meds.

Any thoughts?

Hugs

Judy

[Guest guest]

Some people become bipolar as a result of certain medications,

usually stimulants or antidepressants. This is known as bipolar 3.

Jane ey had this experience. I don't remember what medication

she took but it made her bipolar.

Antipsychotics are used as mood stabilizers and are sometimes used as

protection against mania. Maybe what your son is experiencing is

hypomania.

My son is on Luvox which is an SSRI but he is also on tegretol, an

anticonvulsive, seroquel, an antipsychotic, litihium, a mood

stabilizer, and klonopin, an anti-anxiety med. He has bipolar I and

is prone to mania. His doctor is very careful when prescribing

SSRI's for him.

All SSRI's are energizing. If someone is prone to mania or

hypomania, they need a mood stabilizer or two to protect them from a

manic episode.

Hope this helps. It's very hard to watch them suffer.

~

On Jan 19, 2008, at 12:34 PM, jchabot wrote:

> I wanted to run something by any of you that have kids that have

> been on SSRI's and got the hyper, " manic " reaction to them, than

> went on to the anti-psychotics instead.

> This is the case with my son, and is now on his 3rd anti-psychotic,

> and is still acting the same , hyper and manic. He was never ever

> hyper until given the SSRI.He was on Prozac and Zoloft.

> Have any of your kids gone back to another SSRI after this?Maybe

> try a less energizing SSRI?

> I'm just curious, because I'm going to bring it up at the next

> dr.appt. I can't see having my ds on an antipsychotic, when he

> could be on an SSRI which is so much safer. He responds the same to

> both. His " bad thoughts " have improved with both types of meds.

> Any thoughts?

> Hugs

> Judy

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Judy,

Our son became hypomanic on high dose celexa, had the dose lowered

from 60mg to 40mg and risperidol added at .5/50mg(?)lowest dose, and

became more manic and o/c. After hospitalization the celexa was

lowered to 20mg and epival/depakote(mood stabilizer) was added and

then slowly the hypomania settled down. I think our son needed the

epival at the time, but we'll never know for sure. Compared to what

we had been dealing with he did get better.

Over the past 7 months we saw personality change and more/different

behaviors, weren't sure what was ocd stuff and what might be med

related. After 7 months we started lowering epival and have started

to get positive chunks of our son back. While we cannot say

definitively that all of this is due to meds, we feel a good chunk of

it was. Time will tell....

We may try low dose of another anti psychotic depending what happens

now. Our current psychiatrist does not believe our son is actually

bipolar, at least not by their criteria.

Our son seems to be getting better in one way, behavior-wise, and

just being a more " normal " decent person, as we reduce the epival,

the ocd is getting worse. We'll take the increased ocd to have our

son back! Hoping this is where we'll end up... Challenge is as the

ocd increases again, anger and frustration erupt with that, still

feel we can connect and communicate better though.

I did have a well known, research based doctor who explained that

medication can indeed bring out bipolar, but not induce it, which is

little comfort I know when one might have not had to deal with it for

many years if the drug had not been taken. Same doctor advised

caution with ssri's since hypomania had been induced, said she would

discontinue altogether and use only antipsychotic to treat bipolar

and all the bad thought stuff would stop. Since she was not our

doctor we could not just follow this on our own, still not sure what

is best....

I have also read and been told that some with bipolar can take an

ssri without a mood stabilizer and be ok, not become manic. Again,

time will bear this out for us. It is so individual isn't it? As

you say you have two kids who react differently. My gut feeling is

that low dose may be what is right for our kid. Super sensitive to

everything, always has been, like his mother(!), so low dose may be

best.

Lastly, the pharmacologist at our children's hospital told me that

prozak is more activating. Our son took prozak for a very short time

and became almost immediately suicidal, more anxious etc.

Ok, so this got really long! If I haven't lost you, I hope this may

be helpful. I know you've had a really tough time with your kids.

This whole drug thing is so hard to sort out. I understand the

decision to just stop them all, which is what I think you did with

your daughter(?). How is your daughter doing now? How the heck are

you doing? I think we all need some really good drugs, made special

for Mums coping with all this!!!

warmly,

Barb

>

> I wanted to run something by any of you that have kids that have

been on SSRI's and got the hyper, " manic " reaction to them, than went

on to the anti-psychotics instead.

> This is the case with my son, and is now on his 3rd anti-psychotic,

and is still acting the same , hyper and manic. He was never ever

hyper until given the SSRI.He was on Prozac and Zoloft.

> Have any of your kids gone back to another SSRI after this?Maybe

try a less energizing SSRI?

> I'm just curious, because I'm going to bring it up at the next

dr.appt. I can't see having my ds on an antipsychotic, when he could

be on an SSRI which is so much safer. He responds the same to both.

His " bad thoughts " have improved with both types of meds.

> Any thoughts?

> Hugs

> Judy

>

>

[Guest guest]

-

Judy,

My DD was put on low dose risperdol+wellbutrin, is doing

great. My other DD was put on low dose risperdol+trileptal and is not

doing as well as the one on the well butrin. I think the dr. did it

to see which way would work best. The one only on the stabilizers is

more OCDdefiant than the one on wellbutrin. So that gets my vote

(.5 risperdol plus 75 wellbutrin.). of course each one is different,

just my two cents.

Kathy

-- In , mnmomof1@... wrote:

>

> Judy, I am not sure. My dd is able to take a lower dose of Paxil,

but with

> mood stabilizers at the same time, but she is bipolar. For your

son, I am

> wondering, did he completely come off meds and have his behavior

revert back to

> his old normal, no manic behavior between meds? Prozac is very

energizing, and

> Zoloft depends on the person. My dh was energized, my dd was

sedated. So,

> maybe having a sedating SSRI would work for your son. Does your

son have any

> manic behavior on the antipsychotics? Good luck. Kim

>

>

> In a message dated 1/19/2008 11:34:53 A.M. Central Standard Time,

> jchabot@... writes:

>

> I wanted to run something by any of you that have kids that have

been on

> SSRI's and got the hyper, " manic " reaction to them, than went on

to the

> anti-psychotics instead.

> This is the case with my son, and is now on his 3rd anti-

psychotic, and is

> still acting the same , hyper and manic. He was never ever hyper

until given

> the SSRI.He was on Prozac and Zoloft.

> Have any of your kids gone back to another SSRI after this?Maybe

try a less

> energizing SSRI?

> I'm just curious, because I'm going to bring it up at the next

dr.appt. I

> can't see having my ds on an antipsychotic, when he could be on an

SSRI which

> is so much safer. He responds the same to both. His " bad thoughts "

have

> improved with both types of meds.

> Any thoughts?

> Hugs

> Judy

>

>

>

>

>

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