Volotile on meds

[Guest guest]

I'm sorry I haven't been able to write back over the past 2-3 weeks

in response to e-mails RE my 10 year old son . I also

havn't read any recent e-mails, so I appologize if I'm repeating a

topic that's recently been discussed.

Ever since he started celexa a few weeks ago, once or twice a day, he

has been having manic episodes lasting about an hour or so, followed

by a sudden crash into deep despair where he cries, moans, holds his

head and says that he hates himself, hates his life and that we don't

love him. Sometimes the deep despair happens in response to a

trigger that sets him off, without having the manic episode first.

Occasionally, a day will go by when it doesn't happen. About 90% of

the time he's sweet and pretty much like himself, except for being

impatient, a little impulsive and somewhat argumentative.

He was on 10 mg. celexa for a week, followed by 20 mg. for about 3

weeks. Next week his dose is supposed to double to 40 mg and I'm

terrified to find out how he will react. His psychiatrist says if he

were bipolar and the celexa was causing him to switch into a manic

state, his mood shifting would be more frequent. He said it would be

a shame to give up on the celexa since SSRIs are his best hope of

getting relief from his OCD symptoms. The only other SSRI he tried

was prozac, for 2 weeks. The prozac made him dizzy, extremely

anxious, panicky and his OCD symptoms worsened.

He's also been taking risperdol and ativan. The psychiatrist

yesterday upped the risperdol from 1.5 mg/day to 2.5 mg/day and the

ativan, .5 mg, to 3x/day instead of 2x/day.

Is what is experiencing consistent with typical behavioral side

effects of SSRIs, as opposed to a sign that he could be bipolar? If

he's experiencing behavioral side effects, should they eventually go

away? Are we in for a nightmare when his celexa doubles next week?

Aaargh. I don't know how we're going to get through this summer. At

least we don't have to worry about his missing more school.

Tamara

[Guest guest]

Tamara,

My son (11 w/ ocd on 100mg Zoloft) has similar episodes. He starts

to pick on his brothers and will give me this look and try to get me

to chase or follow him. It's almost like he feels out of control

but can't tell me and needs my help. I usually have to physically

move him away from the other kids and try to find something to keep

him busy. (one day I had him run on the treadmill & another time I

took a walk w/ him) Afterwords he says he doesn't really remember

why he acts that way.

He went to the pdoc this week who feels it's not the Zoloft but

probably anxiety peaking. He wants him to stay at 100mg till next

week and if it doesn't get better to up the Zoloft. Pdoc says we

should stick with Zoloft until we have reached the max of 200mg to

know if it's really going to work.

Right now ds is not going to a therapist because we haven't found

one that really knows how to treat ocd. The pdoc thinks that once

he does get proper therapy, more of the ocd issues will go away

since meds and therapy together are usually more effective.

I do feel these episodes may be related to the meds, but I am

willing to try it for a while longer. It's frustrating because he

has been on Zoloft since January (slowly increasing) and we still

don't know if this is the right med for him.

[Guest guest]

This is what happened with my daughter. The anxiety coming through the Zoloft

made her feel very out of control. The OP mentioned her child needing to run

away from the situation. My daughter would do this as well. It was like she

couldn't stay in the situation because she was so overwhelmed with anxiety that

she would bolt. She was at her worst at 150 mg of Zoloft and her pdoc said to

raise her to 200. At that point the med would either make her even worse, if

that was the problem, or better. It was scary to wait it out, but for her the

200 made a huge difference. Eventually she had other issues and other meds were

added as well. Good luck. Kim

In a message dated 6/23/2006 7:15:37 AM Central Standard Time,

julieaw66@... writes:

He went to the pdoc this week who feels it's not the Zoloft but

probably anxiety peaking. He wants him to stay at 100mg till next

week and if it doesn't get better to up the Zoloft. Pdoc says we

should stick with Zoloft until we have reached the max of 200mg to

know if it's really going to work.