Hello Everybody,

I am a newbie on this forum. My son has been diagnosed as ADD, bi-polar, depressive, oppositional, compulsive, angry, and suicidal.

He is 11 years old now and has had this diagnosis since he was 6 years old.

His meds are:

150 mg lithium x 1
300 mg lithium x 3
respedal .5 mg x 4
dextramphetamine SR 15 mg x 2
generic zoloft HCL 50 mg x 1

He is now in the hospital and they have added Tenex and Vyvanse.

Is this too much medication for a child his age?

I need help, I live in Florida and he lives with his mother in St. Louie.

Fiddy

JMO... but it does sound like it's a little overboard. However, I'm not a doctor. Do you get visitation rights at all? If so, how does he act while with you?

As we say up north here, Fidcor: Uff da! That does sound like a lot of stuff for an 11 y.o. But I have NO IDEA. Just wanted to say welcome and I'm sorry that stuff's so rough for you and your boy.

Truthfully, I don't know the answer to your question, either. :(

It does seem like a lot, but I don't have much of a reference from which to jump from either...

Your son and your family will be in my thoughts though. :hug:

-It is notoriously difficult to diagnose serious psychiatric disorders in kids. (So I have been told.)

It is hard to sort out this disorder from that, etc. (e.g. schiz vs. bipolar vs. early personality pathology)

-There is also trend to really hand out the bipolar label to kids and adults lately, it seems, too.

With a kid who is so angry and suicidal, I'd wonder what ELSE is going on in his life/past, that could be contributing to his problems. Clinicians call these "psychosocial factors".

Being hospitalized before puberty for these things (suicidality suggests a history of self harm) sounds pretty serious. Suicidality is pretty rare before puberty, IIRC.

Is there any family instability? Does the mother (or any step parent or LD or social stressors) contribute to his issues?

My thoughts are with you, Fiddy.

I would echo what QueensU girl had to say. Also, it seems like a really long time to have that diagnosis and still have it...I mean, still suicidal after all those years.

I went to a talk recently given by Dr. Leonard Sax an MD and a psychologist (you can google him). His talk was about the importance of educating boys in a way that works for boys, in the early school years. They can get completely turned off school as schools seem to be designed for the feminine mind. Anyway, in this talk, he spoke about a child who was on many different psychiatric drugs, prescribed by prominent psychiatrist(s) at one point or another. If I recall correctly, the child ended up in hospital in quite a bad way. He was taken off all the drugs. (I don't know how quickly he was taken off the drugs or who started that process, the docs or the parents.) His parents eventually sent him to a new school, which was an all boys school, and the child got his life back. His diagnosis in the beginning (I forget what it was) just snowballed as the drugs were prescribed, one on top of the other to deal with what were probably side effects. He found his place in the new school, his needs were addressed and he no longer had any drugs. I hope I have relayed the story correctly.

My point is not to scare you, but to relay that Dr. Sax was saying that docs can get things wrong, even supposedly "good" ones and that it is hard to tell with kids what is really going on. I hope this gets straightened out for your child's sake. Let us know what happens. YOu might try finding out if the docs have any clue "what else might be going on" other than the years old diagnosis.

Thanks for posting.

Great point, Canukie!

I know in my case, I was on 9 different meds.. could barely walk.. as I could no longer afford the meds and went off them one at a time.. I was able to walk again,... not perfectly.. but better than I was while on those combination of meds.

The child should be re-evaluated. Also given a full physical... since he's been on so many meds for so long. JMO

Hello Everyone,

Thanks to all of you who posted your comments and opinions.

I am also grateful for all the encouragement given. My son's mother is handling the situation and she is all for taking him off the meds. She is consulting the doc at the hospital to see if our son can have his meds lowered. We will have to wait the weekend.

Thanks again for your support...

Fiddy

My thoughts are with you too. I don't know what I would do but I think I would want a fresh start if possible - starting over so to speak. Best of luck to your family this is really heatbreaking I am sure.

How is your son doing now? Inquiring minds want to know! (hope its all good!)