Re: SSRI's/sleeplessness/bi-polar meds?

October 20, 2009

Was she on the Prozac for a while and still experiencing the hyper behavior and

sleeplessness?

I ask, because it is a common side effect of SSRIs to cause some hyper behavior

when first starting them. Our son experienced that both times he started them.

IF that does not go away after a period of time, (thinking it was a few weeks

here, and sometimes would flare up a bit again with med increases), then you

should be concerned about Bipolar Disorder.

It got pretty extreme at times too. He would say he felt like he couldn't stop

moving. And he would comment that he felt " so hyper " , while laughing a bit

crazily. It would pass though.

He also experienced sleeplessness with the antidepressants. We had him take

them in the morning instead of at night. But, even that didn't help completely.

So, we started having him take Benadryl at night to help. The Benadryl

eventually stopped working, so we switched to Melatonin. But, it seems the

biggest thing that helped, was just time. His body eventually adjusted to the

meds and the insomnia went away.

It doesn't help that they are dealing with the OCD at bed time, where they have

nothing to distract their mind, so it is worse. That used to keep our son awake

too.

I'm so sorry that she was feeling better and had to go off the meds. It's so

hard to watch our kids suffer.

I know what you mean about college. We are dealing with a flare up right now,

and also trying to get college stuff in place. Not sure how it's all going to

work out. I guess we can only do what we can do though.

Hope something I shared was helpful.

BJ

>

> Hi, I haven't posted in a while. My daughter is 18 now, a senior in high

> school. She is having a very hard time with finding medication(s) to

> help her OCD and depression. The SSRI's (like Prozac) cause her to not

> be able to sleep at all, even with a sleep medication. That's

> unfortunate, because her OCD and her mood were so good on the SSRI's...

> for the first time in her life, she was happy and active and outgoing.

> She was so happy and active that her doctor thought she was becoming

> hypomanic at one point. He said she might have a tendency toward being

> bi-polar and that the SSRI's could push someone with this tendency into

> a manic state and cause them to develop full-blown bi-polar disorder

> when they ordinarily wouldn't have. So, he took her off the SSRI and put

> her on Lamictal (lamotrigine). But her depression has been getting much

> worse since then. So, he decided to add back a little of the SSRI, but

> then she couldn't sleep again.

>

> Has anyone else in the group had a child who reacted to the meds in this

> way? (Not being able to sleep at all... even with sleep meds? And then

> becoming hypomanic?) If so, what did you do?

>

> Any suggestions or advice from anyone would be appreciated. We're just

> about at our wits end. I was really hoping we could get her medications

> regulated before she starts to college next year.

>

October 20, 2009

I can't really address the manic part, because we didn't see that with our

daughter, but the sleep disturbance ... YIKES! We ended up giving Zoloft in the

morning, and that helped alot. With our dd, though, it was more sleepiness.

She would sleep and sleep. We figured out it was because we were giving it at

night and it would keep her from falling asleep, but once she did, she was

impossible to get up in the am.

It did wonders for her anxiety and ocd though. Now she wants to wean off, go

figure!

She is 17, I hear you about college. Hope you can find something that works!

Tina

> >

> > Hi, I haven't posted in a while. My daughter is 18 now, a senior in high

> > school. She is having a very hard time with finding medication(s) to

> > help her OCD and depression. The SSRI's (like Prozac) cause her to not

> > be able to sleep at all, even with a sleep medication. That's

> > unfortunate, because her OCD and her mood were so good on the SSRI's...

> > for the first time in her life, she was happy and active and outgoing.

> > She was so happy and active that her doctor thought she was becoming

> > hypomanic at one point. He said she might have a tendency toward being

> > bi-polar and that the SSRI's could push someone with this tendency into

> > a manic state and cause them to develop full-blown bi-polar disorder

> > when they ordinarily wouldn't have. So, he took her off the SSRI and put

> > her on Lamictal (lamotrigine). But her depression has been getting much

> > worse since then. So, he decided to add back a little of the SSRI, but

> > then she couldn't sleep again.

> >

> > Has anyone else in the group had a child who reacted to the meds in this

> > way? (Not being able to sleep at all... even with sleep meds? And then

> > becoming hypomanic?) If so, what did you do?

> >

> > Any suggestions or advice from anyone would be appreciated. We're just

> > about at our wits end. I was really hoping we could get her medications

> > regulated before she starts to college next year.

> >

>

October 20, 2009

This is exactly what happened to my son on Prozac. He then had to be

hospitalized. He wound up on mood stabilizing meds (many of them) only to be

hospitalized on them as well. Still the extreme anxiety and then explosiveness

occurred even on the gold standard Lithium. The only thing that has helped him

stay out of the hospital has been CBT/ERP. He remains on mood stabilizers as

they can be used to treat med resistant OCD. However, he's been well for a

while now and we are beginning to remove them.

If your daughter is not getting ERP therapy, I would strongly suggest it and I

also would encourage you to question the Prozac. My son got better when he was

taken off Prozac and given a low dose of Seroquel and Ativan as needed. We

tried other SSRI's once off the prozac to no avail (even tried neurontin, ect).

Some people just can't tolerate those meds and yet I don't believe in our case

that it defines my son as bipolar because his primary and overriding symptoms

have stemmed from his anxiety and not depression and mania. Also, as I

mentioned, the mood stabilizers didn;t prevent the recurrence of symptoms

(panic, anxiety, aggitation, explosiveness, violent behavior - in that order).

Hope you can get on the right track soon.

Bonnie