Hi All
I wonder if you could help me ? My 11 year old son has tourettes syndrome ,O,C,D , Hi anxieties -separation is very bad !!He was dx with ADHD and given concerta , he was also on anti- depressants for his O,C,D (the first lot of anti-depressants made him hyper so they changed them and tryed a different type which were a little better . He was on these for a year before the concerta !!) Well after a little while he went ( what i now know to be manic ) pacing around the room all the time ,you could spend the whole morning giving him the best time in the world . Then straight away he would need more stimulation , it had to be constant !!!!!. He became agressive bad tempered , cry because he did'nt know what to do with himself . His mood swings were up and down his behavour was a little embaressing people would look and wonder why such a big boy was acting the way he was . He also had suicidal thoughts because of all of this going on ,
We went back to the specialists and he said he was bipolar and took him off the meds and put him on what you call dekobate 500mg morn /500mg eve ( I'm from the UK we call it sodium valproate) We have see a great improvement and he has been on them for 8 months but this is the big question
If you react the way my son did to the concerta / anti- depressants does that alone make you bipolar ?
He has always been an ADHD classic and i just feel i could take him off the meds and have the ADHD child back and get him off these meds . He has always been an intense difficult child but never like what the concerta made him !!!
I look forward to your thoughts on this
Many thanks
julia1111

Maybe sometimes mania can be mistaken for add ? that is how I acted on Zoloft anyway, depakote does me fine, my "mania"drug the non psychotic is seroquel.
My son who is now 20 was add and it makes me wonder if that was the problem at all now....he could have been past the manic stage to the aggressive stage. After 2 years,and horrible coming down side effects; I flushed his ritlin down the toilet and bought the "Dare to Discipline" book.(C.Dobson) He is now a healthy, productive, wonderful young man, don't all of us mothers think that of our sons???LOL Good luck and I hope the depakote helps, it makes you crave carbs and sugar,(maybe retain some fluid, so drink water to flush the system)I have LOST 11 poounds! so limit these to avoid weight gain. Rhonda

Hi Julie, I hope your son is doing better on the sodium valporate. I have bi-polar disorder, since I was 17 yrs old, I'm 46 now, anyway, antidepressents always seemed to make me manic, but I'm not sure if that was just because I'm bi-polar. I hope your son 's diagnosis is correct. I'm not good at advice and I don't have any children, but I wish you the best ..