question Re: meds

[Guest guest]

I need you all to help me think.

Due to a unique situation, w/ life as well as insurance, my son's

psychiatrist is in a different state and is just supplying meds. I am

therefore, somewhat on my own here.

This is the situation. My son is on Luvox for the OCD. It helps

tremendously but has the behavioral side effect of sending him into

never-ending hypomanic episodes to counteract this, he also takes

time-released Dexedrine, regular Dexedrine, and clonidine. Now, I must say

that when we do find a new pdoc I would like to try a new SSRI to see if the

side effects were easier to live w/ and the effect on the OCD the same, but

for now I am stuck.

Now, to the point. My son takes 37.5 mg and 50 mg of Luvox in the am (7am)

alternating days, as well as 5 mg of the time-released Dexedrine at the same

time. At 2pm he takes 2.5 mg of regular Dexedrine and at 7pm he takes 0.1 mg

of clonidine. All of this is necessary to avoid the violent, out of control

behavior that is a side effect of the Luvox induced hypo-mania.

W/out the clonidine he can't sleep. I don't mean it is difficult, i mean he

sleeps 2 hours a night for months on end w/ no naps. due to doctor

situations beyond my control we are w/out the clonidine for a few nights. it

just dawned on me tonight, as i am talking to my son at 1 am, that he is so

much himself right now. this however, does no one any good because it is one

am and it is the result of no clonidine.

my long-winded question is---can anyone help me come up w/ a new time

schedule of meds that might possible create this " normal " time period during

the day. Maybe we could even eliminate a med. in the process. I mean, what

might happen if we completely switched times and made this wonderful thing i

am experiencing now, a normal day occurrence

just curious if anyone could come up w/ some suggestions. i miss my son. he

is such an amazing child, but we all need sleep around here. i just want him

like this in the daytime now and then. thanks for " studying on this one " as

my granddaddy would say.

noelle

noelle136@...

[Guest guest]

Noelle,

I'm sorry that your son is without his clonidine and can not go to sleep. My

son is also on Luvox. He got the other end of side effect. He gets quite

sedated. Now, he sleeps easily 12, 14 hours a day. I don't know how he would

adjust to the school schedule, when school starts. When we attended the OCF

conference, we talked with Luvox people. They said that Luvox will increase the

level of melatonia after 8-10 hours (at least to some people). was taking

morning and evening dosages. They suggested to chage to one mid-day dosage.

That seemed helped a bit. In order to make the side effect to be not as bad, we

tried with shifting intake time and divide one dosage into two or three and

combine into one. This is normally the doctor's call. But, our doctor is not

responsive. So, I took the liberty to change these parameters around for Chris

and then inform the doctor. Therefore, you may want to try to divide your son's

dosage into two small ones and take them at maybe am and pm. Or, change this

one dosage from 7am to some other time and see if there is any difference and

then, adjust further.

I know it's so frustrating when you see your loved one suffers. I cried and

felt hopelessly when my son sedated severely. We are actually searching from

the dark to find the magic formula and pattern for our loved ones.

Take care and hope you find a new doc soon.

TC

[Guest guest]

In addition to modifying the Luvox dosages you may need to find out if an

enhancer drug might be added.

We also suffered from the sedation, but have ended up with Celexa now.

Dr. J frequently notes that he suggests tailoring the dosages and times of

administration to the individual to see what works the best.

jim in san diego