Aggression and Irritability What helps the most!?

[Thinkandreceive]

In a major flare right now. Aside from antibiotics, what helps the most with anger and aggression, and irritability!? I need something quick! Its getting out of hand here!

 

TIA

 

Bailey

[peglem]

We've had some relief w/ ibuprofen and valium. But, started a beta blocker @ a month ago and that has made a huge difference, and then we switched abx to minocycline (from zith) and that helped even more...but, started to flare again a week ago, so have added a 7 day prednisone taper and a 10 day course of clindamycin. Very little aggression/irritability yesterday and today.

 

Before starting the beta blockers, I was giving way too much ibuprofen (and even then, just mostly preventing headaches), but have not had to use much at all with the propranolol (beta blocker) on board.

[NancyD]

For really quick results what helped us was ibuprofen 3x daily and long Epsom salts baths. Long term what helped the most was IVIg and getting to the underlying infections other than PANDAS (e.g., Lyme, Bartonella, mycoP, etc.).

[LNN]

I think it depends on what's causing the flair. If infection and you're using an abx you've had success with in the past, then ibuprofen and alpha lipoic acid.

 

But also consider yeast. DD was the devil incarnate this past week, just when she'd been good for months and I was thinking she might be permanently out of the woods. LLMD put her on an antifungal/antiyeast natural supplement (Byron White A-FNG) one drop/day plus garlic and probiotics, which we do all the time. Four days of h**l and motrin 2x/day. Alpha lipoic acid as an anti-oxidant. Then yesterday she came out of the tail spin and is almost back to herself (motrin 1x/day). You can also use resveratrol as a good anti-inflammatory (tho I found different brands work better than others).

 

So consider whether symptoms fit Pandas or something else. When my kids get weirdly silly or super-short-tempered and irrational, yeast seems to be the culprit. When brain fog or muscle pain flairs, I suspect lyme. When OCD/separation anxiety are dominant, I think strep. Tho so many symptoms overlap, my kids' dominant symptoms can sometimes steer me in one direction vs. another.

[dcmom]

For us- abx plus advil work most of the time, but sometimes we resort to steroids- which take care of these symptoms within a couple of doses. My kids seem to have pandas, and not underlying infection. If it is pandas- I think doing something to calm the immune system FAST is the best bet.

 

Good luck!

[airial95]

we also swear by regular dosing of ibuprofen. Even our kids teachers have noticed the difference on the few occasions when they have had to administer the dose...

[formedbrds]

I have heard that cutting out all dairy products helps a lot. No luck for us, but I know others have had success with this.

[hugs2day]

A very good dr. suggested to me that if in a flare and things are bad we could try a little bit of benadryl to take the edge off. Not enough to put asleep or drowsy just a little bit. I have done this with liquid dye free benadryl before and it does take the edge off my younger son. Never had to do for my older son. I have never seen bad side effects like some others have by using benadryl, but I have only had to use on occasion on my youngest.

 

The suggestion of Ibuprofen is number 1 always works for both my kids. Good luck to you I hope things get better soon. Hugs.

[formedbrds]

For us- abx plus advil work most of the time, but sometimes we resort to steroids- which take care of these symptoms within a couple of doses. My kids seem to have pandas, and not underlying infection. If it is pandas- I think doing something to calm the immune system FAST is the best bet.

 

Good luck!

When you give steroids, do you mean that you give a steroid burst, or do you just give a low dose for a couple days?

Edited July 16, 2012 by formedbrds

[artsygirl]

Celexa was good for me. It kept me from experiencing rage but yet it also allowed me to have emotions. I wasn't flat on it. But after 13 years, it was kinda pooping out. Concerta was terrible, Prozac was awful. Adderall is okay. I'm not angry or seem to get as angry when I take it.

[Dedee]

When my daughter was at her worst she was terribly aggressive, and had awful rages. I put off giving her any sort of prescription medication as long as we could. But after a year, I finally gave in to my Doctor's suggestion and we started Lamictal and it helped a great deal. You start slowly and work up on the dose, but we saw results within a few days. Now I wonder why I worried so much. Life is so much less dramatic for everyone. Her doctor says as we get the infection cleared we will wean her off.

 

Dedee

[dcmom]

formedbrds-

 

sorry- just saw your post.

 

We now catch the flare ups immediately (each child has about 3 or 4 per year). We try advil plus antibiotics first, but if that doesn't work, we use steroids. Usually now a week or two will do it.

[MIAS_MOM]

formedbrds-

 

sorry- just saw your post.

 

We now catch the flare ups immediately (each child has about 3 or 4 per year). We try advil plus antibiotics first, but if that doesn't work, we use steroids. Usually now a week or two will do it.

Something else we added for dd's extreme violent rage was anger therapy, with a great therapist once a week. DD actually enjoyed going, because we found a seriously great therapist that made it fun for her, and it did help 50/50. Costly, but it did help us.

[nicklemama]

Before we knew my DS had PANDAS, he was placed on lamictal and it worked well for tampering down anger and irritibility. We weaned him off last fall and he hasn't taken it since Dec and hasn't needed it since he had ivig.