medication for emotional outbursts

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My 12 year old son has been taking antidepressents for 4 years for emotional outbursts, excessive crying, and extreme negativity. He started on Prozac at age 8, then switched to Zoloft. Both of these medications have worked very well - his symptoms have been well under control. However over the past few weeks the outbursts and negativity have started again. Now that he is older instead of just screaming and crying he is also locking himself in the bathroom. It seems this is occuring after he has been disciplined for something he's done - like making poor choices or breaking a rule. During the last 4 years he's been on the medication he's been able to handle similiar situations without any outbursts. The outbursts last less than 30 minutes and after he has calmed down he feels very remorseful.

His doctor suggested increasing the Zoloft, which we did but it seems he's a little worse. Now his doctor is suggesting Risperdal which I have some reservations about. I am wondering, now that my son is 12 and is starting to go through puberty with all the hormonal and chemical changes, if the Zoloft is just not the right medication for him anymore. It's like he's back to the way he was prior to taking the antidepressents.

Has anyone experienced this with their child? Has anyone weaned their child off an antidepressent after 4 years and seen postive results? Or started a new medication in place of the anitdepressent - like Risperdal?

Thank you for any information you can share.

Keep in mind that he is 12 and a swirling mass of raging hormones right now. I understand that the meds have helped your son, as they have also helped my own AS son, but what you are seeing could be just puberty. It may be that his dosage needs to be adjusted. My son was on Risperdal and it really helped him. He could not have been mainstreamed at school otherwise. It also led to severe tics (facial, vocal and full body) and a persistent weight problem. Every parent has a different style, but the way I deal with my son is just to talk to him about the consequences of his choices. I figure the bad results of his bad decisions are punishment enough.

Congratulations, you have a teenager. There's no med for that.

Hi, I to have a 12 year old with puberty kicking in. He is on meds for anxiety/depression and we have just added back his adhd meds. I'd taken my son off the adhd meds for about 6 months (may have been longer) I wasn't convinced they were working, however he is back on them only because he will be going to high school next year and he needs help now to get him self prepared.
Punishment for my son is virtually non existent. If he has made a wrong choice or broken a rule, he punishes himself much worse than I ever could. I talk to him. I offer advice on what a better solution/outcome to his choice may have been. I also have to look at each situation and see if perhaps there was something more I as his parent could have done to have better prepared him.
Can you offer him some alternative escape routes other than the bathroom? Perhaps you could tell him when he is starting to feel like this he could go to his room and shut the door and have some quiet calm down time? Actually I don't see him locking himself in the bathroom as all that bad, if he is only in there for half an hour and if it is helping him feel safe and to calm down. My only concern with this would be if he could harm himself whilst in there, or if it's the only bathroom in the house and others need to use it.
He sounds like he needs more strategies put in place to help him deal with stress rather than more meds. What have you tried so far?