Thank you and some questions | ADHD Information

When my son was misdiagnosed with early onset bipolar (he is REALLY on the autism spectrum, but the psychiatrists missed the boat), he was put on it because the shrink thought he was hearing voices that weren't there. Duh. He asked my very literal autistic son "Do you hear voices in your head?" and he said "Yes." Much later, off meds, and diagnosed right we asked him about his answer and he said, "I do hear voices. You just talked to me and I heard your voice." Ugh. Literal, literal. Anyways, the Seroquel was given for alleged hallucinations that weren't there. It isn't a mood stabilizer. It's an anti-psychotic. Do you suspect your child has co-morbid bipolar? It is unusual for a child with stand alone ADHD to end up in a hospital and Zoloft is a med for mood problems too (although often not a good one for kids--there is a black box warning by the FDA on SSRIs for kids). Do you think your child only has ADHD? Seroquel is a pretty heavy duty med. I know because I was warned my son could develop high cholestral and weight gain. We didn't care, as long as it helped the bipolar, but we sure cared once we found out he didn't have it. I know it's given in low doses for sleep and anxiety. Not sure how effective it is. There are milder drugs for anxiety unless, of course, they feel he has a mood disorder. I hoped they weaned him slowly off the Zoloft. Any SSRI antidepressant has bad withdrawal symtoms that can make the child seem way worse before he seems finally better and it can take weeks. No responsible psychiatrist would just take him off Zoloft. If he did, I'd truly question his credentials. OlderMom38864.8393402778My son is ADHD, ODD with social anxiety and he has difficulty falling asleep at night. He has always been one that has a hard time sleeping, I can remember when he was 3 to 9 years old he would often wake me up between 2 and 4 am and tell me that he couldn't sleep. Since he was placed on the clonidine and then the seroquel he has been falling asleep and staying asleep. He was weaned off the Zoloft and when I saw him Thrusday evening he was very bright, engaging and not at all nervous. I haven't seen him like this ever. I do know that with the Zoloft there is the warning that it may cause aggressiveness. I know this as this is what we saw in my son. The dosage that the doctor said in very small as when it is used to treat schizophrenia they use a dosage of 1200 mg or more. I think his is 25 mg now. I can understand the frustration you must have felt for your son. I did that with the developmentalist the was treating my son. When the social worker asked me who I wanted tthe psyc doctor or the developmentalist I almost died laughing. I told her that I thought it would be better for the psyc doctor to continue to see him and to write the perscriptions as she would know the meds better. Just what I need is for the developmentalist to write for too much med for my son again. The doctor also told me that she did not think my son would need to be on the seroquel for the rest of his life, she thought it would be short term. Thanks for the information.I am so sorry you are going throught this. I hope your son gets better soon.My heart goes out to you and my girl has ADHD and ODD and I am worried about the teen years myself.  All i can say is what I am doing taking one day at a time and I will keep your son and you two in my prayers. JillThank you all for your questions and advice regarding my son. He is currently in a behavioral health unit and has been a roller coaster since his admission. The doctors there have been fine tuning his meds and I thought they had it down. I called the unit this evening to find out that my son had plugged the shower drain and flooded his room. I was told that he started picking on another boy on the unit shortly after supper and had been sent to his room for a time out. When it was time for him to shower he decided to flood his room. The doctor took him off the Zoloft and they tried clonidine at bedtime. But the clonidine didn't work as it dropped his blood pressure in the mornings. So they took him off of that and put him on Seroquel. I know that this drug is used to treat manic episodes in bipolar patients and for schizophrenia patients. The doctor told me that they have used this drug in the anxiety problems with ADHD with good success. I have tried looking on the internet and on the micro medex we have at the hospital where I work but I can't seem to find anything that this is a use for this drug. Has anyone else seen this drug used in this way? Thank you.Went to see my son today, he had a very difficult morning and got his pass revoked. But we had a nice visit until he got angry with his sister. In short he thought she had said something in a snotty way, but she didn't. He got upset with his dad and me because we didn't agree with him. He stated that we think that our daughter is "the golden child." I told him that we did not believe that. I then asked him if he thought we should leave and he said yes. We talked with the nurse about his behavior and she said they would watch him. I told her I would call later tonight. On the way home hubby and I were talking and it hit me that he is jealous of his older sister. When I called the unit later tonight and shared my thoughts with the nurse, she also thought that this might be the reason for his change in behavior. She asked me to share my thoughts with the doctor when we meet on Tuesday. I agreed and asked her to pass this information along also. She also had told me that he was still awake and that he had been irritable all evening. I also asked her to tell him that I loved him. I really think that this might be part of the problem as when we started paying for a tutor for our daughter and her grades started to come up his strted to go down. He had told me at that time he also needed a tutor. I wasn't sure I could find someone to tutor him as he has been verbaly abusive to the school staff. Not sure if anyone really wants to one to one him for any period of time. But I think I will be checking into this. Thank you for the support and letting me ramble.