At the age of 7 - we were told at school that he had a panic attack - we took him for various test and eeg tests to be told he had ADD - we put him on concerta - which mad him quite mad - we then changed it to lexamil which made him very aggressive - to cut a long story short, we tried various meds which either made him cuckoo or aggressive or huge weight gain. We did a MRI yesterday and we saw he had Chiara 1 - his only symptom is a squeezing of the throat feeling - NO headaches or sore muscles - he is very sporty. He sometimes have behaviour issues which use to confuse me but not everyday They are thinking of putting him on epilepsy meds - anyone know if this will work> He is 13 now
Lamotrigine (lamictal) is very effective and should level out the mood thing. (as much as you can with a 13 year old boy) It should be manged only by a pediatric neurologist. NEVER by a APRN, or mental health person an certainly not a pediatrician or PCP. He should have blood levels checked regularly. IF you can find a neurologist who is part of a Autism team etc so much the better. Now my very strong opinions
NO more SSRIs (like lexamil) in my opinion they haven't found one compatipble with teen hormones yet. Avoid any of the ADHD drugs if you can. That amphetamine crash that comes at night is a headache waiting to happen and the time release makes your after school hours a living hell. There may be no choice if its truly ADHD. Success in academics is critical and he needs friends.....
A hint about the antisiezure meds. They are pricey. You insurance company will try to force you into generics. This may or may not be a problem so long as your pharmacy will commit to you they will supply you with the the very same generic each and every time. (most wont) The tweaking of this medication is what makes it successful. Changing generics can change that tweaking. Conseqiently these are what are called "Orange Book Meds" Your insurance company MUST approve the brand name and can not penalize you for not using generic. They have to treat the med as if the generic doesn't exist so that difference in copay may not generally be applied.
We can start another thread about 504 or IEP (there are advantages to each) when it comes to dealing with the school
Lamotrigine has been known to cause aplastic anemia, rare but still happens,a child i was looking after died from this, caused by his epilepsy meds, lamotrogine, thought you should know, severe adhd can be well controlled with meds alongside other therapy