Pondering anxiety medications

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Hello, I am a new poster (obviously) with a nine year old Aspie kid. He is struggling with some major life transitions right now: he is leaving his class and teachers of three years and his best (and only) friend will be in a different classroom next year. He has always had generalized anxiety issues but now they are severe enough to be debilitating. We've been working with the school for the last two months and the coping strategies just aren't working. So, today my husband took him to his first psychiatrist appointment. After a long screening the psychiatrist recommended putting our son on a SSRI drug and gave us four brand names to research for our next appointment. So does anyone have experience with any of the following drugs on children?:

Prozac
Zoloft
Lexapro
Luvox

We're leaning towards Luvox because it has the longest track record for use in children.

our son has had: paxil, depakote, prozac, and seroquel.........for him, prozac and seroquel have worked the best. unfortunately, not every med works for every body. some day maybe they'll come up with something that works for a great majority.

Thanks for the reply. We have the apointment tomorrow to start his meds. Wish us luck.

hope everything goes well

So far my son (age 7) hasn't been on anything and the last year for him has been really, really tough (new house, new school, new baby, new friends etc) but he's been going to see a psychotherapist for a year now. She specializes in play therapy and I've found that given all the professional's we've worked with, she is by far the most experienced at coming up with good coping techniques. Maybe it's something that you might benefit from? I had never heard of play therapy before meeting her and now that we've been in it for a solid year, we would have been lost without the things she's taught us, taught our son etc.

I'm definitely not saying your son doesn't need meds, it just might be something that can go along with meds to help him cope or maybe give you some new ideas on what might be beneficial to him.

How did the appt go?

We're comfortable with the decision to try meds and the appointment today went well, thanks. Ray told the psychiatrist all about his new hobby: collecting different kinds of keyboard mice. If the man had any questions about the AS diagnosis I think they probably immediately disappeared. We'll pick up the prescription tomorrow. We're trying Luvox first. I am hoping we get lucky the first time but I know many people have to change their medication. At least we'll be going through this over the summer instead of while school is going on.

It's so great to get answers isn't it? I think the timing is great to be able to sort some of it out over the summer and hopefully when he starts the new school year he'll feel more grounded. Good luck!!

i agree, the timing is great...at least if the meds make him sleepy for a few days, it won't affect school. good luck !

The only experiences I have heard about with them is that they can be seriously bad.
Those I've known who had them pretty much got their mind and life in but when dropping them could recoup and get their life in order through careful guidance instead.
I like to think of chemical medicines for things like this as trying to swat a fly with a sledgehamer in a china shop.
You're using massive, overkill force for something that is but an annoyance, and you run a great risk of doing a lot of damage while you're at it.
Besides, how could one trust someone who's only interested in making money from you and that can only do so as long as you're ill?
I wouldn't give any of those to my kid, but you seem to have made up your mind, so I hope that works out for you.

What are the meds treating? What kind of help do they give? My son isnt on any and I wasnt aware that AS could be treated with drugs. My son is on the mild side so maybe thats why no one has mentioned medication for us.

ion- My son's anxiety is not a minor problem. It is full scale misery for him. I'm glad you are secure enough in your opinions to post over something you've only heard about. Personally, I like to rely on careful research and personal experience, but you seem to have made up your mind, so I hope it works out for you.

bigbear- The medication is for problems with anxiety. I don't think there are any drugs that treat AS. If there were I'm sure school districts would be promoting them.

as far as i know, there aren't any drugs that will treat aspergers~only one's who can address some of the symptoms. my son wasn't on any meds until the age of 13 when he became suicidal, and his anxiety skyrocketed. he would fluctuate between sleeping for days, and not sleeping at all.most days he would be so anxious, it was like electricity in the air. son's meds have helped to balance son's symptoms and get his sleeping regulated. my hubby started taking meds last year at the age of 38. for him, the meds relieve some of his anxiety & also help him sleep. hubby reports that he hadn't ever gotten a restful night's sleep until he started taking sleep meds. they are still the wonderful aspies that they've always been ~just more comfortable....for them it's not about assimilating into society, it's about feeling better personally.

I've been on prozac for about 15 years. I clearly remember the first time I took pills. It also helped a lot with some AS symptoms like meltdown and feeling overloaded and stimming excessively.

I'd never go back to life without it.

My oldest is now on Risperdal and back on her Strattera. We had one diagnosis of AS, then a 2nd of mood disorder/ADHD. I'm actually leaning toward that 2nd one right now (hey, it can change as she grows, more symptoms, etc).

The risperdal helps the mood swings/fits, and the Strattera helps her anxiety, hyperactivity, and gives her greater focus in school. The one Psychiatrist told me Strattera at 25 mg/day didn't do anything for her. Let me tell you - it really DOES. She is dist. honor roll 2 yrs. running in a bilingual class.

Hi, greendeltatke,

Chiming in a bit late here. My son also has significant anxiety along with obsessive-compulsive disorder and mild Asperger's. He's currently taking Seroquel at night--has been for over a year--and we added on the Luvox starting this April, when his anxiety got really bad. It's been a tough go of it; the Luvox actually seemed to make his anxiety worse at first. We started at a very low dose since he's had trouble with SSRIs before, and have finally gotten up to 100mg/day in 2 doses of 50 mg each.

The really good news is that it seems to be helping, and really started to make a positive difference when we finally reached that target dose of 100 mg. Others in this thread have said that the first medication may not be the right one, and they're right. Doing an SSRI trial takes patience--it can take up to 12 weeks to really determine if you're using the right medication. But if that one isn't the right one, don't give up hope; each person reacts differently to each drug, and it's very hopeful that you'll find one that can really help.

We also have our son in therapy with a psychiatrist who does cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is the therapy of choice for anxiety and OCD. That's really helping, too, and studies I've read indicate that the combination of an SSRI and cognitive-behavioral therapy produce the most positive outcomes.

Good luck, and I hope the Luvox is working for you.

Meckman

I myself am on seroquel and lexapro for anxiety/depression. I've found that seroquel helps tremendously with my anxiety. I used to spend every day constantly worrying about everything. Now, things are much better. If Luvox doesn't help out with your son, I would recommend talking to his psychiatrist about seroquel.