Anti anxiety meds ..

[Teri]

Hi folks

Just wondering if anyone has or is using any anxiety meds with their kids. My dd (6 next week) has PANDAS. We have had a pretty challenging summer. Right now she is on azithromycin , Cipro , Lamisil, probiotics, & Claritan. We are 6 days into the new school year and it is exhausting us. She is now in full day Kindergarten which she seems to love. However since late June when she came down with some kind of tummy bug we seem to be fighting to keep our heads above water. Dd has been battling OCD, resurfacing of facial/ head tics, and extreme anxiety. For example she woke up the other morning, crawled under our bed, cried, and said she wasn't going to school because she doesn't want to go to gym. It took lots of tricks on my part to get her out from under the bed,eat, and go to school. We emailed the teacher and contacted the school counselor to give them a heads up. We have several incidences like this one. Just spoke to my Ped. who said she would probably benefit from anti- anxiety meds.

 

Anyone else using medications to take the edge off the crushing anxiety? So heart breaking to watch your child fight this sickness! Looking for some wisdom .....

 

Teri

[Mayzoo]

We use a combination herbal preparation when we need to: My link--sleep relax formula. It helps around here a lot for both mommy and kiddo depending on who needs it more or for both of us if needed . And, my kiddo is on very low dose Zoloft (SSRI) for general anxiety.

 

Is the same doc prescribing all the meds she is on, and are they regularly checking her liver function through blood work?

Edited September 13, 2012 by Mayzoo

[Teri]

Hi folks

Just wondering if anyone has or is using any anxiety meds with their kids. My dd (6 next week) has PANDAS. We have had a pretty challenging summer. Right now she is on azithromycin , Cipro , Lamisil, probiotics, & Claritan. We are 6 days into the new school year and it is exhausting us. She is now in full day Kindergarten which she seems to love. However since late June when she came down with some kind of tummy bug we seem to be fighting to keep our heads above water. Dd has been battling OCD, resurfacing of facial/ head tics, and extreme anxiety. For example she woke up the other morning, crawled under our bed, cried, and said she wasn't going to school because she doesn't want to go to gym. It took lots of tricks on my part to get her out from under the bed,eat, and go to school. We emailed the teacher and contacted the school counselor to give them a heads up. We have several incidences like this one. Just spoke to my Ped. who said she would probably benefit from anti- anxiety meds.

 

Anyone else using medications to take the edge off the crushing anxiety? So heart breaking to watch your child fight this sickness! Looking for some wisdom .....

 

Teri

Same doc is prescribing the meds and not sure if liver function has been tested although she had bloodwork (lots of it) at our last appt.

Forgot to mention that dd has been on Cipro & Motrin (2x per day) since our last appt. on 8/16. She also takes .25 mg of melatonin @ night to help her fall asleep. Prior to the PANDas dx we really were against over medicating our kid. She has asthma & allergies that we always treated conservatively with meds. She had big behavioral reactions to the both allergy/asthma meds & food dyes/artificial additives. At this point though - we want whatever will help her function close to normally.

[Mayzoo]

Hi folks

Just wondering if anyone has or is using any anxiety meds with their kids. My dd (6 next week) has PANDAS. We have had a pretty challenging summer. Right now she is on azithromycin , Cipro , Lamisil, probiotics, & Claritan. We are 6 days into the new school year and it is exhausting us. She is now in full day Kindergarten which she seems to love. However since late June when she came down with some kind of tummy bug we seem to be fighting to keep our heads above water. Dd has been battling OCD, resurfacing of facial/ head tics, and extreme anxiety. For example she woke up the other morning, crawled under our bed, cried, and said she wasn't going to school because she doesn't want to go to gym. It took lots of tricks on my part to get her out from under the bed,eat, and go to school. We emailed the teacher and contacted the school counselor to give them a heads up. We have several incidences like this one. Just spoke to my Ped. who said she would probably benefit from anti- anxiety meds.

 

Anyone else using medications to take the edge off the crushing anxiety? So heart breaking to watch your child fight this sickness! Looking for some wisdom .....

 

Teri

Same doc is prescribing the meds and not sure if liver function has been tested although she had bloodwork (lots of it) at our last appt.

Forgot to mention that dd has been on Cipro & Motrin (2x per day) since our last appt. on 8/16. She also takes .25 mg of melatonin @ night to help her fall asleep. Prior to the PANDas dx we really were against over medicating our kid. She has asthma & allergies that we always treated conservatively with meds. She had big behavioral reactions to the both allergy/asthma meds & food dyes/artificial additives. At this point though - we want whatever will help her function close to normally.

 

Please make sure her liver function is being tested. Macrolides (Zithromax), Lamisil, and Claritin (antihistamine) all are heavily processed through the liver and should be monitored. I am not saying you should be overly concerned with this, just that you should be informed and make sure she is being tested.

 

Melatonin is one of the safer chemicals out there as far as toxicity goes and it difficult to reach a level of symptomatic overdose. My kiddo (55lbs) takes 3mg delayed release melatonin every bedtime and sometimes takes a second one late in the night if she awakens. I found with kiddo the melatonin cycle of the immediate release was really working against us. It kicks in after roughly 45 min and wears off after roughly 4 hours. A person normally can remain asleep or go back to sleep easily after the four hours IF they are not having all these other issues that our kids have .

[LNN]

If you're looking for a "natural" anti-anxiety option, you can look into 5-HTP or tryptophan or Gaba. My daughter (50lbs) took 500mg tryptophan for a few months and it helped a great deal (but start out with a lower odse and build up if needed). You can go to the search bar in the upper right corner of this page and search on these supplements for old discussions.

 

For allergies, we use quercetin, which is a natural flavonoid http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/quercetin-000322.htm We use 500mg in a capsule that also contains bromelein, which improves absorption. It doesn't last as long as an OTC pill (generally we get about 4 hrs relief) but it has no side effects.

 

You may also want to read up on mold, which can really mess with your health and cause neuropsych issues, particularly rages and anxiety, at least in my experience. I used to think mold wasn't a problem, but then I looked in the plastic catch drum of my washing machine (the one that the visible metal drum sits inside of) and was appalled. Also found some under the kitchen sink (from a drip), under some old rugs we replaced, and in some attic insulation under a vent in the roof that had started to leak, not to mention the mildewy boxes in the basement clutter.

[MomWithOCDSon]

We use Zoloft for our DS and feel that it does help him.

 

The conventional . . . and necessary . . . wisdom with respect to SSRIs and PANDAS kids is that the dosing needs to be VERY low and VERY slow; if your doctor is not well-versed in PANDAS, then it will probably be up to you to closely monitor and potentially even selectively reduce her dose yourself. Too many docs don't understand the consequences with our kids with too-high (though conventional) doses of SSRIs.

 

If you're not already familiar with it, read this paper and take a copy of it to your doc.

 

Dr. Murphy - PANDAS and SSRIs

 

In the end, if you can lessen her anxiety through more "naturalistic" means (tryptophan, 5-HTP, inositol, etc.), then that's great. Those interventions just weren't adequate in our case whereas the Zoloft has been successful. As LLM suggested, there are dozens of threads here about some of the herbal, natural and over-the-counter interventions some of us use instead of, or in supplementation of, prescription meds. Since every kid is different, every "formula" is different. Unfortunately, what some doctors suggest is "standard" or "by the book" just isn't. But you can figure it out. Hang in there!

[sosudden]

Ahhhh I wish the answer was easy --- and standard for all of these kids!! Seems what works for some does not work for all. I will just tell you what we have tried/are trying with our dd (just turned 10).

I will start witb saying she is SUPER sensative to ALL meds and supplements.

What is finally working in SSRI department is Celexa. Nothing dramatic, mood a smidge better, therefore anxiety and ability to "fight back" a bit better. (Or vice versa but it is helping!

Prozac - took at her worst and didnt help at all may have hurt but she was SOOO bad at the time. Took for 3.5 months.

Zoloft - tried this summer for 2 weeks. Awful response. Anxiety inside and out. Restless legs. Crying for HOURS on end.

Melatonin - refuses to take. Makes her feel too dreamy. Causes night terrors.

5-HTP - excited when I read about this on forum. Made her feel goofy, dreamy, foggy, hyperish and therefore also increased anxiety.

Hydroxyzine and benadryl - makes her sleepy but does nothing for anxiety.

 

Valerian Root - I use the drops and it helps! She is an take before school even if she needs to -complete doesn't make her sleepy. I would suggest trying it 1st to see if it makes her sleepy.

Totally Calm Kid - works ok if I can get her to drink it all.

 

And more than some of the times it seems like nothing can help ...

She has been so off the charts scared/anxious that she cries and begs for something to just put her to sleep...

I hate this disorder

[Missmom]

Our dr. Prescribed vistaril which is a simple antihistamine but has a proven side effect of reducing anxiety. I see your daughter is taking Claritin, I assume for allergies. You might ask about visteril as an alternative to Claritin. It helps my ds12 with both allergies and anxiety. It is non addictive and we only give it as needed.

[Iowadawn]

Our dr. Prescribed vistaril which is a simple antihistamine but has a proven side effect of reducing anxiety. I see your daughter is taking Claritin, I assume for allergies. You might ask about visteril as an alternative to Claritin. It helps my ds12 with both allergies and anxiety. It is non addictive and we only give it as needed.

 

Vistaril here too as Rx for anxiety. Our ds13 does not get sleepy from it; never did. Just an FYI--Zyrtec is the second generation antihistamine that comes from hydroxazine (Vistaril)just no anti-anxiety properties.

[philamom]

bumping...for any more feedback (good or bad)

[FallingApart]

Dd takes lexapro. We tried all the natural remedies mentioned and saw benefit. But none were lasting. Lexapro had an immediate effect on dd for the positive.

[lulu4]

DD12 has first psych eval coming up on Tues. I just got on forum to ask same questions, so thank you all for chiming in. Will def look at Murphy paper. Thank you so much for the resourced!

Sosudden, when your child was taking prozac and zoloft, would you know if those were "standard of care" doses, or low doses for pandas and your child still didn't react well to them?

Am scared to experiment with these ssris, but really need something to help.

[lulu4]

I see the Murphy paper was published in 2006. Does anyone know of any other studies done on this topic in the past 6 years? Thanks.

[kos_mom]

Our experience has varied from not helpful to creating more problems. DS took prozac from ages 8 to 10 and had weight gain, constant feeling of being hot, and, when upped during an exacerbation, itchiness that led intense to scratching, wounds, more scratching with wounds being broken open in a horrible cycle that took a year and a half to break. Doctor said part of the "syndrome" and not the drug for the latter, but I have also suspected the Prozac. It is unclear whether his initial tapering off of OCD, tics--which took many months--was attribuatable to the Prozac or just the thing running its course. DD, 19, has been on various SSRIs, none of which seemed to do a thing--not harmful, but not helpful either. She removed herself from Celexa over a month ago two weeks or so into her first treatment with abx. We have now gone almost three weeks with no anxiety or panic attacks. Given my experience with SSRIs, I'd give the Vistaril a chance first if I had to do it over again.

[FallingApart]

I believe I've taken vistaril for my migraines. Since I've had so many meds in my past, I can't remember everything about them. Is this one on par with a mild muscle relaxer? Or not that drastic? Dh and I are thinking about taking dd off or lowering the lexapro dose.