Wednesday, January 05, 2005
New Medications
We've been to see the psychiatrist three times in the last few weeks, once for a follow-up visit about Jason's medication, and twice with Timothy for an initial evaluation and treatment strategy.
Jason had been taking Tenex, a blood pressure medication that was supposed to help him settle down a bit. He'd been having a lot of trouble in school, talking too much in the classroom and getting aggressive on the playground. He stopped getting into trouble at school, but we didn't like the impact it had on him at home. He was no longer interested in interacting with us when he got home from school. All he wanted to do was sit watching TV and tracing pictures from books.
We've already tried Zoloft, and that didn't work out well either--he became very manic. He'd gotten through six months of kindergarten without a hitch, but once we put him on Zoloft he was in the principal's office 3 times in 7 days. This time the psychiatrist recommended trying the atypical antipsychotics. Specifically, he wanted to put Jason on Abilify. He said if it worked really well we'd see a significant decline in anxiety, better frustration tolerance, easier transitions, and less aggression. We're a week into it now, still much too soon to tell what it's really going to do for Jason.
As for Timothy, after hearing us describe his behavior and observing him, the psychiatrist said he probably has Obsessive-compulsive Disorder. That makes sense to me given the hours and hours Timothy will spend dropping crayons or rocks or cereal or anything else he can get his hands on onto the floor.
The medication of choice for OCD is SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). We've started Timothy on Zoloft now. In the first few days we (and his speech therapist, and grandma) have noticed significantly more eye contact. Hopefully that means that this is the right medication for him. The doctor said that response to SSRIs varies quite a bit from child to child and drug to drug, so we might have to try 4 or 5 SSRIs to find the right one.
Jason had been taking Tenex, a blood pressure medication that was supposed to help him settle down a bit. He'd been having a lot of trouble in school, talking too much in the classroom and getting aggressive on the playground. He stopped getting into trouble at school, but we didn't like the impact it had on him at home. He was no longer interested in interacting with us when he got home from school. All he wanted to do was sit watching TV and tracing pictures from books.
We've already tried Zoloft, and that didn't work out well either--he became very manic. He'd gotten through six months of kindergarten without a hitch, but once we put him on Zoloft he was in the principal's office 3 times in 7 days. This time the psychiatrist recommended trying the atypical antipsychotics. Specifically, he wanted to put Jason on Abilify. He said if it worked really well we'd see a significant decline in anxiety, better frustration tolerance, easier transitions, and less aggression. We're a week into it now, still much too soon to tell what it's really going to do for Jason.
As for Timothy, after hearing us describe his behavior and observing him, the psychiatrist said he probably has Obsessive-compulsive Disorder. That makes sense to me given the hours and hours Timothy will spend dropping crayons or rocks or cereal or anything else he can get his hands on onto the floor.
The medication of choice for OCD is SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). We've started Timothy on Zoloft now. In the first few days we (and his speech therapist, and grandma) have noticed significantly more eye contact. Hopefully that means that this is the right medication for him. The doctor said that response to SSRIs varies quite a bit from child to child and drug to drug, so we might have to try 4 or 5 SSRIs to find the right one.
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A couple of years ago, I think it was ABC, did a special on children with autism. Well, there was this women from India who taught her son to read and write and to function like "normal" children ie communicate with others openly (he even writes poetry). Her drive to teach her son helped opened a school for children with autism where she still teaches. As technology grows, the world will be more available to your children. There are no limits.
God Bless
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God Bless
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