pediatric oxycodone? Why is it working?

[Sirena]

DS (age 6) is on a pediatric dose of oxycodone HCl (5mg every 4 hours while awake) because of post T&A pain. He's also on Clindamycin and Azith (since T&A first round of culture results). The interesting thing is that when we give him the oxy and keep to his dosing schedule, our sweet, smart, helpful, kind, kiddo emerges and I just want to hug him and do a happy dance! But, if he gets behind on his dosing schedule by 30 minutes or more, out comes the mean, raging, punching, spitting, emotionally unstable kiddo with intrusive thoughts. Hmm...

 

I noticed that a couple other folks mentioned a bit of a PANDAS holiday while on oxy post T&A and I'm wondering what/why/how is it working and might there be something to learn from its positive effect. Obviously (I assume) oxy would not be a long-term management drug, but maybe it could point to something else that could be okay? He was taking ibuprophen before the surgery and that helped take the edge off, but didn't get us so close to pre-pandas normal.

 

Any thoughts???

 

Btw, DS had his first day of first grade today and made it through with flying colors with oxy and abx on board. One day at a time...

 

[kim]

Sirena,

Have you looked at the wiki page on oxycodone?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxycodone

This looked interesting;

After oxycodone binds to the opioid receptor, a G-protein complex is released, which inhibits the release of neurotransmitters by the cell by reducing the amount of cAMP produced, closing the Ca++ channels, and opening the K channels.[26]

 

I see you refer to your son as PANDAS and with the T&A and antibiotics, I'm assuming that his symptoms started after strep/multiple strep infections?

 

One of my favorite posters here (Buster,) made a remark regarding cAMP that I never really understood in relationship to abnormal antibody response to strep. You can read his post here. 2nd one down.

http://latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5683&page=3

 

more from wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclic_adenosine_monophosphate#Role_of_cAMP_in_prefrontal_cortex_disorders

Role of cAMP in prefrontal cortex disorders

Recent research suggests that cAMP affects the function of higher-order thinking in the prefrontal cortex through its regulation of ion channels called hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (HCN). When cAMP stimulates the HCN, the channels open, closing the brain cell to communication and thus interfering with the function of the prefrontal cortex. This research, especially the cognitive deficits in age-related illnesses and ADHD, is of interest to researchers studying the brain.^[6]

 

I don't really have any idea if there is anything useful here or not and I realize how complicated this stuff is but if you play around with any of this and come up with something, let us know

Edited September 15, 2015 by kim