susieb,
"They are recommending sending him to a long term facility for 6 months to a year to do more testing and more theorpy with him."
She didn't say they were sending him... she just said the doctor was wanting to send him to this facility for further testing and more therapy. I persoanlly have to wonder why this would hurt. If she trust the doctors she is working with and the professionals working with her son then she will do what is best for her son. I don't see her giving up and going with the first thing said. Read her later posts,please.
She was wanting ideas to help her make her decisions. Cutieheather24 seems to have her head on her shoulders and is trying everything to get the right help for her son.
cutieheather24 I hope you find what you are needing. I know that this can not be an easy time for you and your family. Take care!
Heather, what happened when he took Prozac? What about Strattera?
Just a suggestion: You should start keeping a chart of all meds/doses/dates taken/son's reaction. It will help any new doctors you see. I do this for my son, who had bad reactions to many meds.
And if you've never had your son evaluated by a neuropsychologist, you should. They can be found at university and children's hospitals.
I am a mother of an eight year old boy who has extreme anxiety disorder and also adhd. He has been on every medication that there is out on the market. He has been hospitalized at a short term facility several times within the last year. He has all the symptons to the most extreme. The docters do not even know what to try him on or what to do with him now. They are recommending sending him to a long term facility for 6 months to a year to do more testing and more theorpy with him. Has anyone out there had any experience with the long term facilies? Please respond with suggestions. ThanksMaybe I'm jumping the gun, but my baloney meter is going off the scale and I get the feeling that the Doc who suggested this is running out of ideas. Do a re-assessment with a neuropsych and think long and hard before you hand him over to a long term facility. I can't think of any kind of assessment for any disorder or disease that takes six months to a year to do. What kind of doc wants to do this? Are you dealing with the pediatrician or a specialist? What kind? I agree w/MomWI, there is much more going on here than adhd. Also, PDD stands for Pervasive Developmental Delay, I think. Good luck and I hope this helps!Ok, if he isn't responding to any ADHD meds/interventions, what you should do, imo, is re-evaluate him. He may, and probably does, have more than ADHD going on, and a NeuroPsycologist does intensive testing, even beyond what they do in hospitals. He could have either early onset bipolar, which wouldn't respond to stimulants, or high functioning autism. That wouldn't respond to stims either. Both mimic ADHD. Take the PDD onlnie test and see if he fits there. If not, could be bipolar. If he had ADHD stimulants would help him. We had an ADHD dx. first and it wasn't that. NeuroPsychs can be found at children's and university hospitals, and will spend a long time assessing your child. It can't hurt to also have him see a Child Psychiatrist (with the mD). Sometimes kids are hard to pinpoint and it takes a while to get the right diagnosis. But ADHD doesn't cause kids to be hospitalized. There's more going on here. Here's the PDD assessment test link. It's pretty accurate according the parents on the PDD board. These are very misunderstood kids, often considered defiant when they are freaking out due to neurological differences that exceed ADHD. They desperately need the proper interventions and, since high functioning autism has only recently been recognized, MANY professionals don't even know what to look for and call it ADHD. Early Onset Bipolar is finally being recognized. All three disorders--ADHD, bipolar and ASD are different and require different treatment for improvement, and symptoms can sometimes overlap, but ADHD is less severe. Many kids whose parents post here are absolutely depserate. IMO that's because the kids are misdiagnosed. If it doesn't respond to ADHD interventions, heck, look beyond!
www.childbrain.com/pddassess.html
MomWI38912.2257060185But the long term facility idea, imo, shouldn't happen until a NeuroPsych or Child Psychiatrist assessed him. He may improve so much, with the right help, that he doesn't need one. If only ADHD interventions have been tried, it is likely he doesn'st have stand alone ADHD and can improve greatly if it is figured out and other things are tried. Good luck :)
We don't know anymore than what is being recommended for her son. For us to say that the doctor is full of baloney is not quite fair. Yes, I would probably get a few other perspectives from qualified doctors before making a decision such as this. cutieheather24 you have to do what you feel is best for your son.
my husband was in a faculity when he was in second grade he said they treated him like a gunniea pig and I understand that they were trying to get him on the right medication but in the end they still put him on ritalin so I in my opinon I wouldn't do that.Maybe I stated my opinion too harshly, but has anyone ever heard of hospitalizing someone for 6mos-year for adhd and extreme anxiety? I'll eat crow if anyone has. It sounds to me like the doctor is out of his depth and doesn't know what more to do for this child. Referring the case to another more experienced specialist would seem to be the next move, but that's not happened, either. Here's a suggestion: Run, don't walk, away from this idea.
Heather, my son's first dx was ADHD and anxiety at age 9. He, too, has extreme anxiety. He didn't respond all that well to stimuants and then we tried to address his anxiety with SSRIs. He had a rage reaction after one dose of Prozac and then had a prolonged intense manic reaction after 3.5 weeks of Zoloft. He is now on a combination of the mood stabilizers Lamictal and Depakote. We still need to tweak med doses, but he is improving and doing pretty well this summer. I'm wondering what meds have been tried and what were your son's reactions. I really am trying to help.
BTW, I have heard of kids going to long-term facilities (generally called Residential Treatment Centers) for severe anxiety. Six months to a year for evaluating and treating is common practice.
Wish I could help more. We had many professionals see my son too. He was 11 when they finally figured out the high functioning autism. It often takes time. I wouldn't stop trying to find another type of professional who has a new perspective. We never did. I just knew they hadn't figured my son out yet. He was a complicated kid. I appreciate all of your suggestions. My child has been hospitalized at a behavior hospital already 3 times and then he has been in a partial problem twice within the last year. This facility that they are recommended will reteach him how to deal with the anxieties and other issues that he has. He has been evaluted by neoro doctors. He sees psych every other week, pschologist ever week, TA once a week and an impact worker once a week. So there are many minds both docters and thearpists. I do not know what to do. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions. ThanksWhat is Seoquel? I don't know I might have to ask my sons doctor again.My nephew was put into a long term care facility at the age of 14. It was very hard on him but he came out a changed young man a year later. He is 17 now and someone his parents are very proud of, with good reason.
Your son is very young to go into one of those places. I don't know the specifics of what is going on with your son, but with my nephew, he had to earn the privilege of even being allowed to talk on the phone with his parents or have visitation. I think that would be a nightmare for a child as young as yours. It really concerns me.
If you really feel its something you need to do to help him, please insist on getting a ton of information about how they handle different situations, how you can be assured he is ok, how they handle homesickness and anything else you can think of.
Ask to talk to the parents of kids and kids themselves who have gone through it in that specific facility recently also. You need to make sure that its a safe environment and not one of those army bootcamp type places that we keep hearing horror stories about. If the kids who have graduated out of there tell you its horrible and not to let him go there, listen to them. I know my nephew will tell you that the one he was in was strict and hard but they didn't mistreat him. Thats what you are looking for.
If possible, I would consider waiting until he is older. I just can't imaging willingly giving someone that much control over my child for that length of time, especially at his young age.
I pray you can make the right decision.
Seroquel is an atypical antipsychotic, typically used to calm anger and agression. He is on serogual which they said was a mood stablizer. My younger son has a dx of bipolar and they act nothing a like. I know that all kids are different and I could very much be wrong. But I really do feel that I work with a confident staff that deals with nothing but these diseases everyday. Like noted before he has intestive theorpy with a number of people several times a week. I just feel like I do not know what to do anymore. These people are the doctors they are the ones that speaclize in these diseases and if they are telling me that this is the best thing for him. How am I to be selfish because I do not want him to go if its going to make him a better person in the long run. The place they want to send him to will work on med modify but most importantly how to deal with his disease on a day to day basic and reteach him how to function. When my child took prozac he was in the inpatient hospital and the docters felt that it did not work for him. It made him a lot more anxious and nervous but not effecting the hyperness or the argression at all so they took him off of it. He was recently on strattera for about two months in which they upped it and he began to have more suicidal thoughts on it talking about killing himself jumping out of the moving car window beating his head on windows and floors. He also threatned to kill his brother and sister and explaining in detail how he was going to do this. That is why the put him back in hospital. This time they have stripped him from all his meds except seroqual. THey want to see what is the real issues and what is caused from medication. He has been evulated by neuro and they did some tests and expressed no need for further testing. But upon my last visit with the docters which was yesterday I told them that I wanted him to have the further testing done regardless of what their neuro doctor suggested. I want to make sure I have tested every avenue out before sending my child away. Thank you so much susie for being understanding. I am not trying to sound rude but I came to this site for the first time looking for some support and help on what to do with my child and feel as if I have been critized very much.
Heather, you need to run, not walk, to a very competent board-certified child psychiatrist who has experience treating children with bipolar disorder. Your son has had two paradoxical reactions to antidepressants, which is a red flag for bipolar disorder. I'm not a doctor, just a mom, but I've seen a lot with my own two children who have working dxes of bipolar disorder. I'd bet the bank that a mood stabilizer (or two) would make all the difference in the world and prevent your son from having to be sent away to a residential facility. Commonly prescribed mood stabilizers are Lithium, Depakote, Tegretol, Trileptal and Lamictal.
Check out these websites and see if the shoe fits:
I'm really sorry about all your struggles. I'm here for you if you have further questions.
Heather, good luck. Please let us know what happens.
Seroquel is an atypical antipsychotic that is prescribed to treat mania in the short term. It is not a mood stabilizer. Seroquel generally will not work over the long haul the way a true mood stabilizer will.
We live in a major metropolitan area on the East Coast. Lots and lots of top-notch doctors and hospitals here. My father is a doctor. I'm well-read on medical issues. My son went to 4 doctors from age 9 to 12. All dxed him with ADHD and anxiety and tried a variety of meds. He got worse and worse the more meds we tried. It was only when we got to the 5th doctor (a child psychiatrist) who said something else may be going on here. My son is greatly improving on mood stabilizers (Depakote and Lamictal).
Well at this point I am willing to mention or ask abotu anything. I am at the final testing days on my son. I will definatly mention this to the doctors on monday when we do rounds at the hospital it is worth a try. It would be a good time to try him on something like this since we are doing all weekend med free. Thanks alotHeather ---
I won't get on here and profess to be an expert, but my 7 yr old has been DX with: anxiety, ADHD Combined, Dysthymia (tho docs believe more likely cyclothymia), and ODD.
He has never been hospitalized, tho the docs have admitted it may have to happen one of these times.
I went to a child psychiatrist, neuro psych, school psychologist.... In my case, the school psych and PCP were on the right track without the neuro psych. Unfortunately, the child psychiatrist perscribed crazy med dosages and tried to only treat conditions w/o treating the whole child.
Long story short I fired him and we are working with PCP until we can get new psychiatrist.
PCP put son on Depakote last Oct-Feb until psychiatrist D/C it. We saw improvement with it (then hit a plateau) and huge setbacks when it was stopped. PCP added it back in and D/C neurontin (which psychiatrist claimed was a mood stabilizer too). Again, improvements have been DRAMATIC.
Mood stabilizers are like any other drug... what works for one may not work for another.
Though only 7, my son actually asked the doc for Depakote back in his own words. And trust that his words carried much more effectively than mine ever could.
Son now takes the Depakote, Adderall XR and Prozac for mental health and a few other things for other medical conditions.
I know stims don't help bi-polar et al... but they do help the ADHD symptoms and and the added bonus of depakote helps with the suspected hypomania associated with cyclothymia.
I wish you much luck with whatever happens. I sincerely hope that if you must put him somewhere that your insurance will allow you to put him in a top-notch place close to home and that offers some family-based therapy for you all. You certainly have your hands full with 3 kids DXed with these conditions. I have exasperation with my one. God bless!!!!
I stand corrected and apologize for my remarks.HELLO HEATHER,IT MUST BE SO HARD FOR YOU TO BE SEPARATED FROM YOUR SON FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME.I HOPE EVERYTHING GOES WELL TODAY.
I AM SORRY I CAN'T GIVE YOU ADVICE AS I DON'T THINK THAT IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE AS ALSO MY SON HAS ADHD HE IS ONLY 4 AND NOT MEDICATED YET BUT I AM A HIGH METABOLISER AND RETILIN DID HAVOC TO ME AND IF IT IS WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR SON,MY HEART GOES TO HIM AS IT WAS HORRIBLE.
WHAT I CAN GIVE YOU IS SUPPORT AND MY THOUGHTS ARE WITH YOU
Well i am sorry to be mistaken. I guess I should say in my experience with my two boys their stimulants needed to be adjusted at least once a year. I guess this is not the normal time span. I should have clarified with my boys this is how it is. .IMac38944.5658912037Thank you so much. I have just recently learned about this site and people here have been very supportive and helpful but most of all they have been honest. That is what you need sometimes is honest people that have been there and done that. Thanks again everyoneI want to thank all of you for all your support and suggestions. I will really take all of your suggestions in with me when i see the doctors on monday. I will also keep all of your comments close to my heart. I will keep you all updated on what is going on with my son. Thanks againWhat different types of medicine is there for kids with adhd because my son's doctor is wanting to put him on another medicine when school starts to eliminate the one at lunchtime so he'll have to take one in the morning and one in the afternoon when he gets home. or is there a site that has a list she told me the name but it wasn't one that I have heard before it starts with a C.Is it Concerta?
Other long-acting stimulants are Adderall XR, Ritalin LA, Focalin XR and Metadate CD. There is also a new long-acting patch out called Daytrana.
Non-stimulants that must be taken everyday are Wellbutrin and Strattera.
Just a suggestion -- if I haven't answered your question, you might want to start a new thread on this topic.
SmallMom38914.5847106481your docter may have been talking about concerta. It is also a long acting medication. My son did really well on it for about a year. But then he had to have his meds changed. It seems like with most children with adhd their meds needs to be changed at least once a year.I sure will keep you updated like I said I will not see doctors tell monday although I will see my son this weekend and talk to his techs at the hospital and can mention a few things to them to note and keep an eye on. I am only allowed to see him for an hour a day right now.Hello all just wanted to update everyone on my sons condition. HE is completly off meds and there has been no change in his behavior. THis leads the docter to think that he needs to be on somthing else. I am not sure what they are going to put him on now but it will be something like depokote or whatever that is. Also he has been evulatated by a neuro psch all along. I just was not sure that that was what his dr was. They have now decided to try a few more things before suggesting the long term facility. Thanks to all