101/2 year old grand-daughter has been on Metadate CD for over a year now and has done well. Recently, she has begun to get moody, angry, fresh (mostly triggered when you tell her no!) and argumentative about practically everything! She is brilliant in school; however, teacher says that she is noticing a change in her focus ability and interaction with classmates. She appears to always be "in your face" for some reason or another and gets snappish at the drop of a dime. Her psychiatrist does not want to raise her drug dosage as of yet, and is sending many forms for teacher to fill out so that she gets a better understanding of what exactly the changes in school look like in the eyes of the teacher. She did, however, suggest that we try her on 5mgs. of Lexapro with the Metadate (no dosage change) and see what that does. Anyone have any experience with this or feelings about what I've described? Appreciate any input. Thanks.
Linda
Lexapro is an anti depressant. Specifically it is a seratonin reuptake inhibitior. In plain english it increases the amount of seratonin, the happy neurotransmitter, floating around in your cerebrospinal fluid. Becareful with this because with more seratonin floating around your body will develop more seratonin receptors causing the senario for a physical addiction to the drug.
Metadate is a stimulant. What she is exhibiting may be a sign she has outgrown her dose. It may also simply be a known side effect of Metadate. Be careful treating side effects of one drug with another drug. Has she had a holiday from Metadate? You may want to ask if she can have a holiday from Metadate and see if the agressive behavior subsides, just to get a clear baseline of where she is.
Good luck.
I've taken almost every SSRI under the sun. Lexapro is an SSRI. It's an antidepressant, and a potent one, like high powered Celexa. It's not a BAD medication, but IMO, I wouldn't want my child on both a stimulant plus an antidepressant of any kind. They could trigger some really strange, "out there" behavior, especially if she may be developing a co-morbid mood disorder. I would stick to the one med and maybe change the dose. If she hasn't had an evaluation for a while, I'd take her to a NeuroPsych or Psychiatrist for a re-evaluation. Like all illnesses, there should be updates to make sure new stuff hasn't shown up that wasn't there before. Diagnoses tend to change with time and so does the treatment. Good luck. OlderMom38802.7114236111