Zyprexa | ADHD Information

Hello,

My sons doctor added Zyprexa 5 mg for weight gain, sleep issues and melt downs when meds were out of system. He currently takes 27 mg of Concerta. Just wondering if anyone had any experience with this drug. Thanks.

Gail

This is one of the newer mood stabilizers/antipsychotics. They are used as a 3rd line ADHD med as well as for bi-polar and other mood issues. They have the side effect of weight gain. There is not alot of published data on the use of these meds in ADHD but there is for bipolar adolescents and there are current studes on ADHD and autism at clinicaltrials.gov. Here is more than you probably want to know about this med:

http://www.realmentalhealth.com/medications/zyprexa.asp

Most of the safety and efficacy studies in kids I found were for risperdal (another of this class of med) and an older (2004) review of this class of meds.

We are just starting risperdal. These meds affect dopamine and serotonin.

Thank-you,

You guys are wonderful and so full of knowledge. My ds is having such behavioral problems as well as weight loss and sleep issues. The doctor seemed very comfortable prescribing this med. He is a triple board cert. psychiatrist so I hope he knows what he is doing. He specializes in neuorolgy and children. He never mentioned the diabetes. I will put a call into him or should I go to his Ped. and have her run the tests for sugar and what not.

I asked the doctor if he felt that ds my be bipolar and he felt he was not. That the anger was a symptom of his ADHD which can mimick bipolar. I read the book The Bipolar Child and found the only similar symptoms my son has are sensory problems(loud noises, tags on shirts and socks that don't fit right ), anger and maybe anxiety.

This is all very confusing and I am scared. I hated to add another med. the stats on how ADHD usually brings a pal along for the ride really sucks .

Thanks again for the info. You are lifesavers.

Gail

Keep us informed on your progress. We all learn from each other's experiences.

My husband was on Zxyprea for bipolar type of anger. We received several letters from an attorney for the drug maker asking if we were participating in a class action lawsuit. From what I gather it can increase your risk of diabetes. I would be very careful using a drug that there is a class action lawsuit pending.

There is an increase in blood glucose in some people (as currently stated in the prescribing information). When the med was originally marketed, this information was not available in the prescribing info and this has opened the company for a law suit. When the info is known, it can be properly monitored, if the info was not properly disclosed, lack of monitoring may have allowed some people to move into a type 2 diabetes. Ask the questions and make sure the doc has a good monitoring plan for all of the potential issues.

I also am curious on how it goes. My son sounds very much like yours. He is on Concerta and the doc added tenex for the aggitation and tics. He also has sensory issues. Weight gain is something that definately would benefit him. Good luck

ang

I will definetly let you guys know how it goes. The last two nights alone it has helped alot settling him down for bed and going to sleep. He used to take melatonen. It would help, but he would not get to sleep until 10:15pm on school nights.

Wish me luck!! I am a little scared and hope I have made the right decision for him.

Gail

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ang

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Tenex can also help with weight gain. I think it is helping Chase with that at least a little.Sounds alot like my son also. We saw the pschy last night. He said it may be bipolar but it is so hard to dx in kids. He agreed with the other pschy about the adhd, but said the anger and rages might just be a mood issue. We currently are adding resiperidol. We started it a month ago and he gain 3 pounds

. For a child that only weighed 37 pounds that was a big improvment. It also helps with sleep. We have seen a slight decrease in the rages, but I would like to see them go away all together.