Help! med question....

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-29-2005
Help! med question....
1
Wed, 12-20-2006 - 11:57am

Hi everyone, happy holidays!

I post here once in awhile, things have been going okay for the past few months but Nathan is starting to go down hill again. It's always this time of year! I just got a call from the principal to come and get him, they are having an unstructured 1/2 day today and had an assembly and apparently some girl sitting behind him pushed him and told him to "shut up" so he cursed at her and got himself into trouble.

When i picked him up he mentioned that he has been feeling more angry and sad and i'm wondering if he needs a change in his meds. He is currently on Adderall and Zoloft and has a diagnosis of Aspergers/PDD nos, anxiety and SID. He has been on these meds for a few years now and I'm wondering if it's time for a change. Does any one have any suggestions on a good med that will help him with his "anger" and impulse control?? I thought this combo was working okay but he is 12 and knows how he feels. He has a doctors appointment next month and I want to be able to suggest a med change. He has been on strattera too but that stopped working.

Any advise would be great!

Thanks and have a great holiday :)

Robin

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 12-20-2006 - 8:52pm

Wish I had some advice but we haven't had alot of luck with meds. However, we have tried almost all of them.

If he has done well with adderall and zoloft, perhaps a change to Focalin and/or Luvox.

Focalin is the new ritalin but they took out one component (a salt I think) that can cause some of the anxiety or other similar problems. I know a couple aspie types that do well with it.

Luvox is a good one for anxiety in a kid that has OCD type tendancies. For us that was one of the better meds and it worked for a while and then had the opposite effect. I hear that can happen with some kids when they have too much of the SSRI built up in thier system but for many it is fine. Remember, no meds work for Mike and this one was the closest. It has done really well for a number of other kids I know with ASD.

Finally, I hear good things about risperadol as well if aggression or outbursts are becoming and issue. Again, it works for many ASD kids, just not mine.

Finally, I have found that Trileptal does seem to be working. Cait has a seizure disorder and trileptal is a seizure med BUT it is also used as a mood stabilizer. It has made her a much more pleasant child. Mike recently is trying it as well. He does NOT have a mood disorder but it worked for sis, there is a question of if he is having some abnormal EEG activity and what the heck, nothing else has worked. So far I am cautious optomistic as we are finally seeing some positive effects after this last increase. Could also just be because he is now on vacation and decrease in stress too.

Renee

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