Inositol

[Guest guest]

Has anyone tried Inositol and had any sucess? I am thinking o trying it along

with cbt and exposure beore we go back on meds. My son was on zoloft and gained

close to 70 pounds Just thought we should try this first and if it doesnt work

possibly add topamax to the ssri as I read this helps with not gaining weight

[Guest guest]

Sorry, no experience with Inositol but just wanted to mention to be careful with

Topamax, if you go that route. It caused my dd all sorts of problems including

forgetting periods of time and making her not be able to think clearly at all.

It did result in her losing some weight but her side effects were not worth it.

Stormy

________________________________

To:

Sent: Fri, June 3, 2011 8:18:33 PM

Subject: Inositol

Has anyone tried Inositol and had any sucess? I am thinking o trying it along

with cbt and exposure beore we go back on meds. My son was on zoloft and gained

close to 70 pounds Just thought we should try this first and if it doesnt work

possibly add topamax to the ssri as I read this helps with not gaining weight

[Guest guest]

My son has been taking inositol for two years now. He's 11 yrs old and has

intrusive thoughts and excessive worrying. It helped him tremendously, making

his symptoms almost non-existent. About 2 months ago, he had an increase in

symptoms. I began to slowly increase the inositol dosage, but did not see any

improvement in symptoms this time. I still have him taking it, though, because

I wonder if he'd be much worse if he wasn't taking it at all. He recently

started to see a new therapist after no therapy for two years, and is doing ERP.

He does not take any ssri's. He also occassionally uses Native Remedy products

(purecalm, mindsoothe jr) and swears that they calm him.

I would try the inositol. I hope you have the success that we've had.

[Guest guest]

Also a lot of people on the board swear by Native Remedies pure calm and mind

soothe ( available online at Native Remedies website)- Can not be used in

conjunction with SSRI , due to possible seratonin syndrome, but if looking for

alternatives. I have no experience with these but have heard a lot of good

things about them on this board.

[Guest guest]

We used inositol powder from 6-8th grades. Worked great. But seemed to be

pooping out some by the end. We had lowered the dose by 8th to just sort of a

maintenance dose (1 tsp a day) and he had been doing fine. But OCD began to

spike some, we increased some and didn't seem to help. So we then tried an

SSRI, Celexa, and used that for 9-10th grades. Did great on Celexa too.

We tried inositol again later in high school and even later, even high doses,

but didn't get any benefit these times.

If he is still on Zoloft, then you'd just want to try lower doses of inositol

powder to try to boost the Zoloft's effect, wouldn't want to go up high as then

you have 2 things working on serotonin and could possibly cause that serotonin

syndome you can read about.

Here's a paragraph from an article, re using it to augment an SSRI:

We had a number of OCD patients, who were only getting partial relief from

prescription antidepressants, so we decided to suggest the possibility of their

trying inositol as an augmenting agent, in addition to what they were already

taking. I should mention here that our clinic is a rather busy treatment center,

and unfortunately, not really geared toward conducting research, so we really

didn't collect any data on this. I know my learned colleagues will shake their

heads at this, and they would be right. In any case, we started to see some

positive results among some of those who tried it. In most cases, these results

ranged from at least mild to moderate relief of symptoms. A few reported even

more improvement. We have generally built up our patients over a six-week

period, starting with 1 teaspoon (2gms) twice per day, and going as high as 3

teaspoons, three times per day. It turned out that not everyone required the

full 18 grams used in the Fux study. One person was seen to improve on just 2

grams daily.

http://westsuffolkpsych.homestead.com/Inositol_and_OCD.html

Hope this helps,

>

> Has anyone tried Inositol and had any sucess? I am thinking o trying it along

with cbt and exposure beore we go back on meds. My son was on zoloft and gained

close to 70 pounds Just thought we should try this first and if it doesnt work

possibly add topamax to the ssri as I read this helps with not gaining weight

>

[Guest guest]

I'm about to put my kids on Inositol around the clock for anx/OCD symptoms.

Would like to hear pros/cons, dosing (for a 40 lb, 95 lb and 130 lb kid) and

brands that are more/less effective.

Appreciate any info on alternate treatments (vs SSRIs).

Vicki

[Guest guest]

A lot of people have had luck with Native Remedies, Mindsoother JR and Purecalm.

I have my son on fishoil, multivit with High B vitamins, CAlcium/ magnesium, Vit

D and NAC in addition to his low dose zolfoft that he is now on.

My experience with all he other alternative treatments ( and I have done most

trying to avoid puting my 3 year old on meds) is that none of them work for the

OCD. Varying effects on general health and general anxiety. I think diet ( I

know my son would do better gluten free but he is now 16 and wont do it), with

low additives/ coloring, high protien, low carbs ) sleep , exercise and good

CBT/ERP are the best defense against OCD and starting meds. I will say when we

eventually did start meds I felt like I had failed my son. I saw it as a

weakness, taking the easy way out and not being able or willing to " do the work "

.. But at that time we had no choice. He had stopped eating because the food was

poisoned. That is an emergency and needs to be treated by whatever means.

In hindsight, ( and although I still would LOVE to see my kid off meds), I see

that the job of an OCD parent is to support the kid in having the best life they

can have, what ever that means and whatever that looks like. There are trade

offs for sure. I am still not sure about long term safety with meds, but in the

end, they were a step to help him live again. Not an easy step, not a pleasant

step, but none the less, he is now a happy and successful high schooler and

whatever needed to happen to get him form where he was to where he is, needed to

happen. I would encourage parents to be open to ALL possible ways to get their

kid better. I certainly would not jump to meds and would use them as a last

resort, but I would not discount them either. If you find the right one, at the

right dose ( not easy), it can make all the difference in the world in the kid

being able to engage with therapy. It is not a failure, it just is what it is.

A sick kid, needing medications to get better.

Think of it like a kid with cancer. Chemo is BAD STUFF. It can make you sick,

it can even kill you, it can cause long term effects that we dont know about and

no one in their right mind would put them on it un necessarily. However, if

your kid has cancer, would you hesitate, even knowing all the bad side effects?

Sure you might try alternative complimentary treatments also. But most of us

would also go with the chemo or surgery or bone marrow transplant or whatever

treatment was available to save our child- we would not get hung up on the

stigma or harmful side effects or anything else.

OCD is a serious disease that needs to be treated by whatever means work. What

is proven best is CBT/ERP, good general health stuff and meds. I would always do

the basics first and I think diet and nutrition are part of that, but if that

fails and your kid is still really sick and suffering and not functional, it is

worth being open to other stuff too.

I harp on this because it was so hard for me. Starting meds on him, sent me

into a major tailspin, and really, that was un necessary. He could be off them

now, but he wants to stay on- his choice not mine, but it is also his disease

not mine. I hope this helps

[Guest guest]

So we are in the initial stages, realizing that we have to do something due to

the anxiety levels being so high for my son (13yo) and ourselves. We have him on

the waiting list for an intensive outpatient program, which is 3-4 months out.

He has been highly reticent and resistent to accepting that he has a challenge

which we understand from others has to be our work now, to get him to a point to

be willing to work on his OCD, which is tough stuff, really tough stuff. In the

mean time we believe that the best next immediate step is to get him on

medication to help reduce the anxiety. The program stated that they cannot take

him unless he is a willing participant. One professional stated that they like

to start with CBT to see if this can make an impact before considering meds, but

not to both at the same time. Since we have to wait for the CBT program, do we

go with the meds for now?

McGinnis

[Guest guest]

, my 17 yr. old started on Paxil at 8 yr. Off meds and then on again at

14 yr. Has stayed on meds now, which was our only option for controlling the

anxiety/depression and OCD. He wants to stay on the meds b/c he is functional

and can have a pretty normal teenage life. Without, his anxiety was so high, he

could not leave the house, socialize with peers, and attend school at dif.

points in his life. Even with meds, school is difficult but is manageable.

We are lucky that he has a good relationship with his pdoc. The pdoc explains

everything carefully and always presents info as a researched based option. This

is important b/c he treats him like an intelligent person and is credible to

him. I always leave it up to Roy to decide about medication changes, which we

have to make with changes in the OCD. Even when he was younger, he needed to

feel in control of his illness. If your son is 13, he prob. also needs to feel

some control as part of being a teenager. I know with my son, he has had a

difficult relationship with my husband b/c my husband can be controlling and

doesn't allow my son to process things slowly. He can be angry and roller

coaster with his emotions, which puts my son in anxious state. The pdoc got my

husband to go for med./counseling and now my son has agreed to work on their

relationship, with the therapist. I only mention this b/c father/son

relationships can be difficult sometimes and in our case, it is a major trigger

for his OCD/anxiety.

My suggestion is go with the meds. If he is highly anxious, it is difficult to

do the OCD work. Try to keep in mind the controlling attitude on both sides b/c

he needs to feel a sense of healthy control of his life (not OCD control). In

our case, working with him as a team as worked the best. Hope this helps.

in WI- 55, PT in schools

Roy- 17.Anxiety/depression/OCD, ADD. Lexapro 60 mg., Buspar 30 mg., Adderall XR

504 in school.

dd-24. Anxiety, ADHD. Zoloft, Adderall XR

ds- 22.BP 1. Lithium

ds-20. Anxiety/depression. Zoloft.

dh-58. BP, anxiety, ADHD. Zoloft, Ritalin.

>

> So we are in the initial stages, realizing that we have to do something due to

the anxiety levels being so high for my son (13yo) and ourselves. We have him on

the waiting list for an intensive outpatient program, which is 3-4 months out.

He has been highly reticent and resistent to accepting that he has a challenge

which we understand from others has to be our work now, to get him to a point to

be willing to work on his OCD, which is tough stuff, really tough stuff. In the

mean time we believe that the best next immediate step is to get him on

medication to help reduce the anxiety. The program stated that they cannot take

him unless he is a willing participant. One professional stated that they like

to start with CBT to see if this can make an impact before considering meds, but

not to both at the same time. Since we have to wait for the CBT program, do we

go with the meds for now?

>

> McGinnis

>

>

[Guest guest]

Many thanks for your post. That helped me get over my last hesitency. That is

our next step. We meet with a psychologist Monday to hopefully help my son get

on board and start with the meds. We will then pursue the CBT option when that

becomes available (on waiting list now). Hopefully he will be willing to

participate.

 

I appreciate you bringing up the topic of the father-son relationship. It is

very estranged between us as well. It seems that my less attention to detail

personality may be triggering his " unsafe " beliefs. For example, I wash the

dishes but there are often spots still on them despite how much focus I put on

washing them. In addition, I am not the disciplinarian in the house. Based on my

own abusive past at home, I tend to avoid conflict and be the peace-keeper. Over

the past few months, this no longer works as his reactions have become more

severe and starting to push and shove. He will stand for hours and argue with my

wife over the simplest things (e.g. being told to do his teeth at 9:30 pm). We

were typical of most in that we accomodated his rituals and arguments for so

long. My wife's ability to endure this has reduced dramatically resulting in

calling me in to get him to his room which now requires holding the phone to

call 9-1-1. After speaking

with the therapist they have instructed us to be hard line until he breaks down

and will start with meds for now. I really hate this stuff and acting this way

since I am sure it is furthering the distance in our relationship, but I know

that I cannot back down. My wife is off to the Dr. to get anxiety pills and we

are both taking Inositol which really helps. Really hard to type this stuff

since it brings up all my sadness since I so much love him.

 

Thanks for being there.

 

 

McGinnis

[Guest guest]

I think the medication may help him be better able to handle the CBT because he

will have better insight into the compulsions as being due to OCD, rather than

necessary. I have both my 13 year old twins on OCD medication and the

difference in the quality of life that they have when on vs. off medication is

mind-boggling.

Re: Inositol

So we are in the initial stages, realizing that we have to do something due to

the anxiety levels being so high for my son (13yo) and ourselves. We have him on

the waiting list for an intensive outpatient program, which is 3-4 months out.

He has been highly reticent and resistent to accepting that he has a challenge

which we understand from others has to be our work now, to get him to a point to

be willing to work on his OCD, which is tough stuff, really tough stuff. In the

mean time we believe that the best next immediate step is to get him on

medication to help reduce the anxiety. The program stated that they cannot take

him unless he is a willing participant. One professional stated that they like

to start with CBT to see if this can make an impact before considering meds, but

not to both at the same time. Since we have to wait for the CBT program, do we

go with the meds for now?

McGinnis

[Guest guest]

, my OCD son is not confrontational, unless my dh is demanding and in his

face. Asking him to brush his teeth would not set him off. I tend to let the

brushing teeth go anyway b/c I have to pick my battles. He tends more towards

high level of insight into his state of mind, very sensitive to other people's

reactions, high anxiety with eventual depression, feeling hopeless about his

situation. Does not sound like your son. My other son with the BP is more

confrontational with little insight.

When we went for a brain image research study, we had to fill out a

questionaire. There were several diagnoses on it that could go with the OCD. The

interviewer said Roy had classic OCD but I gathered that he could have had one

of a number of other diagnoses, in addition to the OCD or OCD expression as part

of the other diagnoses. I mention this b/c when you go to the psychol and/or

pdoc, maybe there is more than just the OCD going on and it will help you pick

the right med. and treatment. Hope this helps. kelly in WI

>

> Many thanks for your post. That helped me get over my last hesitency.

[Guest guest]

Thanks ,

 

I see I have a whole new set of acronyms to pick up (-:

 

We looked up BP in the DSM (now here I go with acronyms), and BP does not seem

to fit. The more we observe, the more we realize that at this point he is in OCD

approx 70-80% of the time. This seems to be combined with early teen and puberty

behaviors. He is incredibly sensitive to germs (not wanting to handle things,

showers after bowel movements, washing glasses for 5 minutes, picking out his

own silverware and washing it before using them, seeing a bug near his food,

etc.). He is also concerned with aspects related to his health and well-being

(scratch is perceived as a serious thing, internal pain could be

life-threatening, etc.). Then there are his rituals (process for going to bed,

how he says good night and several times). In addition, and most pronounced is

his sensitivity to being heard and resultant temperment. If we do not do exactly

what he says, and if we speak up when he has not given us approval to speak,

etc. he gets really upset and takes

forever to talk through this. Wears my wife down to nothing with this.

 

We are meeting with the Director of the SDSU Anxiety Clinic Monday (first

meeting) with the hopes of him meeting Geoffrey and getting him to understand

why he has to start with medication. ly, the anxiety levels are too high

for any other alternative at this point. Hopefully the anxiety levels will

decrease by the time an opening occurs at the UCLA Program. He has to be a

willing participant to be enrolled however. Yesterday we made the decision to

call 911 today if the anxiety and tempers continue. Have to get him willing at

this point and to begin with meds to hopefully reduce the anxiety. Pray for us

to get through this step.

McGinnis

________________________________

To:

Sent: Saturday, July 7, 2012 9:37 AM

Subject: Re: Inositol

 

, my OCD son is not confrontational, unless my dh is demanding and in his

face. Asking him to brush his teeth would not set him off. I tend to let the

brushing teeth go anyway b/c I have to pick my battles. He tends more towards

high level of insight into his state of mind, very sensitive to other people's

reactions, high anxiety with eventual depression, feeling hopeless about his

situation. Does not sound like your son. My other son with the BP is more

confrontational with little insight.

When we went for a brain image research study, we had to fill out a

questionaire. There were several diagnoses on it that could go with the OCD. The

interviewer said Roy had classic OCD but I gathered that he could have had one

of a number of other diagnoses, in addition to the OCD or OCD expression as part

of the other diagnoses. I mention this b/c when you go to the psychol and/or

pdoc, maybe there is more than just the OCD going on and it will help you pick

the right med. and treatment. Hope this helps. kelly in WI

>

> Many thanks for your post. That helped me get over my last hesitency.

[Guest guest]

, it may be that he has learned that he can deal with his anxiety and get

you to comply with the rituals that make him feel safe by his temper. If you

don't think he would get violent, you may want to absolutely not give into any

rituals further in which he needs you to enable it, unless he agrees to go on

medication. At 13, he is old enough to read up on OCD and know that is what he

has. He is also experiencing an excruciatingly high level of fear, and while

feeling this way may be unable to think through that he can't go on this way.

In his 13 year old mind, he may be feeling that he just has to avoid this

horrible fear and he'll worry about the future some other time. Have you spoken

with his pediatrician about this? The pediatrician may be willing to prescribe

medication to start without a whole appointment about it. Have it in the home

and let your son know that you feel terrible about what he is experiencing, but

that it is due to a disorder, not unlike someone having diabetes or epilepsy,

and he must go on medication as the first step to getting better. Let him know

that if he will do this, you will ease up on him for a few weeks while it starts

taking effect. This would be a motivation for him to take it. Then when it

starts kicking in, he will be less scared and more able to attack his OCD. I

had OCD so severe that I was taking showers that lasted through the entire

night. Once on medication, the showers somehow shortened to about 30 mins.

Re: Inositol

, my OCD son is not confrontational, unless my dh is demanding and in his

face. Asking him to brush his teeth would not set him off. I tend to let the

brushing teeth go anyway b/c I have to pick my battles. He tends more towards

high level of insight into his state of mind, very sensitive to other people's

reactions, high anxiety with eventual depression, feeling hopeless about his

situation. Does not sound like your son. My other son with the BP is more

confrontational with little insight.

When we went for a brain image research study, we had to fill out a

questionaire. There were several diagnoses on it that could go with the OCD. The

interviewer said Roy had classic OCD but I gathered that he could have had one

of a number of other diagnoses, in addition to the OCD or OCD expression as part

of the other diagnoses. I mention this b/c when you go to the psychol and/or

pdoc, maybe there is more than just the OCD going on and it will help you pick

the right med. and treatment. Hope this helps. kelly in WI

>

> Many thanks for your post. That helped me get over my last hesitency.