My doctor has suggested a medicine change for my 12 year old PDD/NOS ADHD, anxious, emotionally age 2, intellectually age 15 boy. He is on the GFCF diet as well as eliminating corn, chocolate, sodium nitrate, hydrogenated oils and peanuts and eggs and soy! If he consumes corn products as well as the others he makes high pitched baby squeels and looses bladder control. The last time we played with meds he wound up in a psychiatric hospital for six weeks. This is a huge decision and am looking for any feed back regarding these drugs.-meme

Why is his doctor prescribing stimulant meds for ADHD when your son has so many other problems. ADHD clearly isnt your sons most disabling condition. And stimulant meds such as the ones you listed can make anxiety worse and in many cases can make PDD worse too.

If all your doctor suggests is meds for ADHD then I'd say its time to find a new doc.



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~*~ Kristy ~*~

My 13yr old has Asperbergers with ADHD and takes 72mg Concerta, 100mg zoloft and 60 mg geodon. This has been an awesome combination. Especially adding the geodon, which is wonderful for the PDD.

Cymom -
Has your son ever been on a stimulant without the other meds to balance him?

Isn't 72mg of concerta a very high dose? Isn't the highest daily all****ce reccomended by the FDA somewhere around 54mg? Do his other medications lessen the effect of concerta and make a higher dose necessary?

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~*~ Kristy ~*~

Actually by all accounts of those who work and live with him, ADHD is the presenting disability- his flavor of PDD is like aspbergers which as we know is often diagnoised latter - like age 7/8 where adhd is is picked up usually by 4/5. He is a taz without the ritilin- hes been on it scince he was 5 1/2- before that he even needed a one on one in school because he would dart here and there and the teachers were afraid they would lose him- I want the one on one for social experiences so we were all happy. He is focused, stop doing all the stimming behaviors, remains active and alert on the ritilin- it just doesnt last long enough

What is geodon and what is its purpose? Jay used to take buspar for the anxiety- it is pervasive and effects about 70 percent of the decisions he makes- its a very bizzare combination. He either has no inhibitions or excessive inhibitions and he bounces back and forth sometimes all day long.

[This message has been edited by memehegan (edited 09-19-2003).]

[This message has been edited by memehegan (edited 09-20-2003).]

Originally posted by memehegan:
My doctor has suggested a medicine change for my 12 year old PDD/NOS ADHD, anxious, emotionally age 2, intellectually age 15 boy. He is on the GFCF diet as well as eliminating corn, chocolate, sodium nitrate, hydrogenated oils and peanuts and eggs and soy! If he consumes corn products as well as the others he makes high pitched baby squeels and looses bladder control. The last time we played with meds he wound up in a psychiatric hospital for six weeks. This is a huge decision and am looking for any feed back regarding these drugs.-meme


High pitched squeels, loosing control of his bladder? Um that sure doesnt sound like ADHD is his major problem... Is he doing somewhat OK now? Were they able to help him at the hospital at all?


[This message has been edited by midnight spirit (edited 09-20-2003).]

My son's dr. put him on the geodon, which in conjunction with AS, helps them to think first then react. This has helped alot with his aggression. He has had no physical confrontations since being on this combination.

Hello again
Actually he has been hospitalized three times, and we and his school were in the process of placing him in a residential program, but after being released from the hospital the last time on christmas eve- (even in the hospital he averaged 3-6 restraints a week and they told me that was as good as we could hope for) I had done alot of research on restraints and told him on the 2 hour drive home that I would not restrain him ever again nor would I allow anyone else to- but for his part he had to agree to hurt no living thing- if he was angry he could wrap up in his blanket- crawl under his mattress(his personal favorite) or punch his pillow- he said he didnt think he could go more than three days- he remained restraint free for months- when school began in January they told me he could not return and they gave him a tutor while they looked for residential- the tutor was worthless- she had no special ed background and as yet they school had not put his learning disability in writing- they kept saying it was all behavioral- I fired the tutor and began homeschooling him (while waiting for the school to get thier 'ducks in a row") only to discover that at almost age nine he could not even begin to write the alphabet but could alphabetize index cards with speed. No matter how calm or mature he was the instant you asked him to write or asked him how he 'felt', he began hi-pitched noises, lost bladder control and crawled under the table- if you sat him down and read to him it was like a light switch- instant maturity and calmness- clearly the part of the brain that controls bladder, emotions, reading and writing are connected - they are all they areas he remains developmentally at aproximately half his physical age. His language skills out side those used to express emotions, wants and needs are advanced 4 years! As appears to be his scientific and reading (actually listening) comprehension. What turned his life around was me accidently stumbling accross a parents magazine Feb'2000 with the cover article "I cured my son of autism" By then I had 3 doctors diagnosis' saying PDD/NOS with autistic like behaviors, ADHD - I was angry that the magazine would mislead parents until I read it - I read the article about the gfcf diet and had nothing to lose so I tried it while the school started a residential search. Within four days we saw dramatic improvements- incredible eye contact- the perserverance began to fade- and emotions bloomed- including my very first I love yous, kiss and hugs! It is my understanding that these kind of results are only seen when the child has an undiagnosed leaky gut. He was a poster baby for celiac- I dont know how I and the doctors missed it- accept I had never heard of it but I kept asking about the skinnyness, red ears, rashes, scraggly brittle hair- the docs poo poo'd them all. in the mean time the school located a new program only 30 minutes away that was a 6 kids to 3 adults ratio with counselling and all kinds of supports- he had remained restraint free at home- completely managing his emotions with the above mentioned tools, but in school despite tons of advocating on my part, the parents resource network and eventually a lawyer - it took two more years to get the writing/processing disability into his IEP and to get the teachers to teach him orally -and at his advanced age level- all his work had been being presented to him at a kindergarten level- how insulting for his brilliant brain. He can even help his sister with her homework!
Anyway - those two years he was restrained in school 33 times(in just one of those years), injured repeatedly. It was awful. Finally this year he is in the middle school and as luck would have it his new teacher for the next two years is a special ed reading specialist with and autism background and she has already doubled his writing output- (his developmental age is primed for this I might add- 12/2=6 the perfect age for writing to bloom!) He loves school now and is a wiz at spanish too! What a sigh of releif- I even took the first week of school off I was so worried. By this time the last 6 years he had already been suspended twice! ( It takes a while for most teachers to learn that pushing Jay to write -even when an IEP says dont- sends him over the edge and eventually regresses him to violent rage attacks) The problem is the ADHD is so prevelant he can not even at age 12 1/2 dress himself without ritilin- the organizational and processing skills needed simply are not there- maybe in two hours he could- but I doubt it because he cant remember what he is doing from one minute to the next so he just baby talks/chirps until I finally say if you want help-you need to ask for it with your twelve year old voice then he tries- and I help him- we only have a 30 minute window from the time he takes meds until he has to be in school and they have to be that late so that he can take them at 10 and 2 - just before the bus leaves for home. (he often argues about taking them for 5 minutes or so for anyone but me or the school nurse- so the only way his step father can watch him while I am still at work is for the meds to be in him)

I am very interested in the geodon- sounds like it does what the risperdal does- only what are the side effects- sterility is a side effect of the risperdal. Scince I have heard or found no negative feed back for the ritilin LA I guess we will try that- the side effects from strattera for adult men are too freaky and I dont want anything else messing with his bladder, semen or penis! He actually hopes to have children one day and when he does hes going to let them have captain crunch once a month! ( he will never beable to have it- but has stollen it once or twice- I stopped buying it for my daughter but its just one more reason for her to resent him- shes four years older) -meme

[This message has been edited by memehegan (edited 09-20-2003).]

You sound like a very loving mother to have helped your son so much. I admire you. What is that diet you refer to?
One of my children has been on Ritalin LA and is now on Metadate CD. The ritalin LA worked really well but irritated his stomach and took away his appetite. That is why we switched to the metadate. It is the same med but is released in a different way, sort of spread out instead of in 2 exact doses 4 hours apart like the ritalin la. The ritalin LA seemed to have lasted longer, but kept him up too late. On the metadate he is able to go to sleep at a regular time.
My son and his older brother had bad side effects from adderall, like depression and anxiety.
Anyway, I would suggest the ritalin LA.
I hope everything goes well for him.
Blaana

I guess Metadate CD was on the list- it sounds like a better deal and if the ritilin LA only releases every 4 hours thats not going to help cause it begins really wearing off after 3 1/2-

Thank you for the lovely note- the diet in the glueten free caisin free diet- if you search my posts on the autism site here I am very verbous and go into great detail about it there! Especially on one thread tittled risperdal. -meme

My son is PDD and is taking 1ml risperdal in the morning and 1 ml in the evening. He is 9 1/2 and has been on the dosage for over 2 years. His Doctor recently has suggested Geodon. He is extremely social and very intelligent but has been reverting to "old" behavior patterns. Lately he has been showing extreme agitation and has begun hitting (usually his sister). The side effects of Geodon seem rather extreme! I'm not sure what to do..the Doctor is just suggesting...can anyone help me?