Does anyone have their child on mood stabilizers?

amother

Mauve

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 2:30 pm

My daughter has a diagnosis of GAD/depression. She’s been on Zoloft for the better part of the past year. We also added melatonin because she’s been having massive daily tantrums, and reported that she’s not sleeping well. The psychiatrist suggested that our next step should be trying a mood stabilizer like Seroquel or Abilify. If anyone does have their child on these type of medications- I was wondering if they work well for you. I also wanted to know if your child gained a lot of weight on them. My daughter is tweenage, and I imagine gaining a ton of weight would tank her self esteem.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 3:05 pm

If you are in the US or Canada, try Latuda before you try Abilify. It's way more expensive, but it has a lot fewer side effects.

DD tried Zoloft, but she said it made her feel spaced out during the day, and gave her insomnia at night. She said even extra melatonin didn't help, so she chose to go off of it with her doctor's permission.

Another good mood stablizer is Depakote. It's notorious for weight gain, but not everyone gains on it. Depakote is safe and proven effective, and worth a try. I'm on a really high dose for various reasons, and I've actually lost weight.

Wellbutrin is another medication you might look into instead of Abilify. It's not in the same drug class, but you should bring it up with the doctor.

amother

Blush

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 3:12 pm

If your daughter is not sleeping at night and also has depression she may have bipolar II disorder like my daughter, rather than just GAD/depression.

My daughter did not have mania, though she did have one week where she experienced hypomania - she was rather giggly - but then had pretty strong depression following that. She started off taking risperdal (actually she took seroquel for one day but it didn't help) and lithium, which helped get her sleeping and stabilized, but it has also affected her concentration alot (the risperdal, that is). It seems like lithium alone hasn't helped enough, and I'm questioning whether it does anything at all.

In terms of the risperdal, her psychiatrist thinks that abilify would be milder so he is trying to introduce it and take her off the risperdal. I don't know - it seems to me that she has gotten more tired and harder to concentrate, since the abilify.

In terms of weight gain, yes, she gained about 20 lbs. on the risperdal. But truth is, she was rather underweight beforehand, and I think maybe because of her depression she wasn't eating properly. After about 20 lbs the weight gain tapered off and stabilized, and she looked quite normal.

We haven't checked but haven't noticed any more weight gain since abilify.

I think weight gain is very individual so you wouldn't know until you try it.....

amother

Mauve

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 3:18 pm

FranticFrummie wrote:

I have this funny feeling my insurance will make us try more typical meds first and have someone say that they failed on them.

Also isn’t Wellbutrin an antidepressant? I was just looking up Wellbutrin as a treatment. It apparently only helps as a mood stabilizer if the person is already taking one, and it can worsen anxiety.

amother

Mauve

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 3:20 pm

amother wrote:

I’ve been wondering if she might be bipolar. The tantrums have increased since we put her on Zoloft. I remember learning that bipolar people should never be on an antidepressant without a mood stabilizer. My daughter isn’t heavy, but she’s already on the chunkier side- and super self conscious about it. If I make her take meds that cause weight gain, she will not forgive me.

amother

Blush

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 3:55 pm

amother wrote:

I've heard that SSRI's can induce mania in someone with bipolar disorder, but I don't know if anti-depressants have the same affect. They just don't really help, because the person with BD needs a mood stabilizer, not an anti-depressant. It's just the wrong med.

Being irritable (tantrums?) can be a symptom of bipolar disorder, though I wouldn't know. My DD happens to be one of the most easygoing people I know.

I hear about weight gain being an issue for your daughter. Sigh. These things aren't easy. If your child needs the meds, she needs it, whether or not she will gain weight (but do try to see if there's a non-weight-gaining med that can work).

For my child it's the concentration. She was like, an A+ student - and the meds have made her concentration tank. It's so hard for her. Her grades have dropped, though she works so hard to keep up. I'm trying to find something that won't have such tough side effects for her, but it's been rough going.

amother

Denim

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 3:58 pm

Dd 5 was put on Respidal a few months ago. We tried intuniv before that but it didn't help. Switching to Respidal did do her well. We upped the dose a bit, still pretty low tho. I do see weight gain, but not crazy. She always had a huge appetite so I'm used to monitoring her food intake. She is less irritaded, happier, and easier to reason with.
It isn't a magic pill, but is doing just the minimum enough to allow the therapy to actually have an effect.
She wasnt depresses tho.
Major behavioral and emotional problems

amother

Mauve

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 4:58 pm

amother wrote:

The antidepressant she is on is a SSRI.

Chana Miriam S

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 5:16 pm

Ability-My son gained weight on it but also lost weight on it. It’s not abilify that made him fat or helped him lose weight. He is in the AS and one of his stims is food. Now he is on a low carb diet and he list some weight so even while still overweight, he is not gaining or eating like a maniac anymore.

For him, finding the right antidepressant was more helpful than the abilify. We went through a bunch but escitalopram was the charm . His anxiety is much lower, he feels great and while it will never give his executive skills help because they are at 1 %, the escitalopram calms him enough that the white noise really stops interfering enough that his ADD meds work. Abilify heightens everything.

Chana Miriam S

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 5:19 pm

amother wrote:

Also, an insomniac my whole life, I just started taking magnesium citrate at bedtime and I’ve never slept so well. If you take too much it can have a laxative effect, but dosed right, it relaxes your muscles which in turn feels like wearing a weighted blanket. I take other meds in conjunction with it but that having been said, I don’t need sleeping pills with it.

amother

Mauve

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 5:26 pm

andrea levy wrote:

She actually happens to have functional constipation since birth. Laxatives are a daily part of her life anyway- so switching in the hopes of having normal sleep isn’t too bad.

amother

Mauve

Mon, Apr 16 2018, 5:27 pm

andrea levy wrote:

Thank you for sharing this.

amother

Copper

Wed, Apr 18 2018, 5:24 pm

It's likely that the increased tantrums and the insomnia are side effects of the zoloft. I've had insomnia as a side effect of SSRIs before around that tweenage age - it is not one of the common side effects, but insomnia is not an uncommon side effects of zoloft. Negative behavioral changes are also known to be a side effect (and not only in cases which are actually bipolar), though this is a more uncommon side effect.

I also want to say that the right SSRI was amazing for me - I had GAD and depression too. Sometimes finding the right SSRI can take time.

Please discuss with your child's psychiatrist whether these could be side effects and whether switching to a different SSRI would be a better first step before jumping to mood stabilizers.

amother

Fuchsia

Wed, Apr 18 2018, 11:05 pm

As someone who was put on a cocktail of medications from a young age because of emotional problems(resulting not from a "chemical imbalance")this thread makes me so sad. I thought I had everything bipolar/depression/anxiety you name it depending on the doctor. All I'm going to say is make sure your kid has a good therapist before adding more drugs to their life. These drugs are serious with serious side effects and once they are on them it's difficult to get off regardless if needed or not.

I'm now married on nothing but vitamins and Bh happy and healthy. Drugs can help, but they should be a last option solution not the first.

P.S. For the record, real bipolar disorder doesn't generally show up until the 20's similar to schizophrenia.

amother

Mauve

Thu, Apr 19 2018, 7:39 am

amother wrote:

Thank you for this suggestion.