Need advice on Lorazepam (Ativan) and Seroquel

[mama4]

It seems like I have read that some kids with Pandas have had adverse reactions to Lorazepam (Ativan). Does anyone have experience with this. DC has taken before and been a little loopy, bit nothing scary. Are kids affected different if they are flaring? I have the same question for Seroquel.

Edited June 13, 2016 by mama4

[TXNinjaMom]

My son took Seroquel one time. Per doctor's orders, I gave him 1/4 dose (appx 6 mg) at 8:00pm because "it will make him very sleepy". Haha! He was up until 3:00am wiping and cleaning his room. His OCD is mostly germ/contamination fears. The Seroquel made it 10x worse. I never gave it again! That was our experience....although like everything else, I'm sure it is different for every kid.

[MomWithOCDSon]

We never tried Ativan, but similar to TXNinjaMom, our experience with Seroquel was brief and not great. We only tried it once, during DS's height of anxiety, when he couldn't do anything without melting down because every situation or undertaking sent him over the edge, into panic.

 

On a very low dose, Seroquel did nothing, and his anxiety continued to rage. On a higher dose, it put him to sleep. There was no in-between.

 

If your DS and/or your family just needs some down time, some opportunity to be separated from his OCD and/or anxiety for a short period, then maybe something like Seroquel is worth a try. The problem I have with a drug like that, though, is that, once it wears off, the anxiety and OCD are just as virulent and high as they were before the drug went in, at least it was in our case. It didn't do anything to "assist" or alter his chemistry so that the anxiety was more manageable, or so that he was in a better state to manage the next round of high anxiety.

 

In our experience, there are better pharmalogical tools for those purposes than Seroquel.

 

Good luck!

Edited June 26, 2016 by MomWithOCDSon

[tj21]

Yes, Ativan caused a 'paradoxical' reaction in ds16 (he was maybe 12 when we first tried). It made him so disinhibited that his tics got way worse, and he was silly and more hyper than usual; and didn't help w/anxiety at all. We tried again this year and he did tolerate it better, but we've also been in PANS treatment for over 2 years with great success.

Seroquel (and every other med practically) did not help, but then again not much in the antipsychotics worked for very long unless it just knocked him out (same w/Risperidone, which we use just for emergency "flares" now).

Tracy

[wisdom_seeker]

Have you had experiences with valium?

 

DS's NP suggested that to manage DS's anxiety before a procedure. .... and as he's about to have dental work, I am wondering, but definitely don't want to deal with a paradoxical reaction on the way to the dentist!

 

Klonopin and Ativan didn't do anything for kiddo though I tried hard for at least a placebo effect. I think I'd given 1-2 Klonopin, at 130#. Anxiety possibly even worse, but I'd always given it before trying to get him to go to school, so it's hard to tell what was Klonopin and what was school panic.

[tj21]

We have not tried Valium. I think it stays in the body longer than Ativan... What about trying the homeopathic remedy "Rescue Remedy" ?

[mama4]

Thanks everyone for the great advice! We ended up using 1 mg of the Ativan and all was ok.