Reply to New psychiatrist recommending Lamictal for 9 year old

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "New psychiatrist recommending Lamictal for 9 year old"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You said it yourself. You think your child's issues are serious, but not extreme.  I would find another psychiatrist who was willing to work with you within this framework, including a period where he is weaned from all drugs for a time so you can get a better baseline.  Obviously you'll need a lot of support to monitor and support his behavior during this time.  [/quote]

Also, another thought that might clarify your thinking/values.  When it comes to your own health, how do you measure the risks and benefits of medications?  I know for me, I am HIGHLY unlikely to take a medication if the risk profile seems to outweigh the benefits, or if I have serious side effects.  I'm not anti-medication (at all) but I just prefer to try to max out all the other possible approaches unless what I'm dealing with is fairly acute.  So for example, I have taken Prednisone when it was really important to avoid permanent nerve damage; I take beta blockers for periodic anxiety; but I have (so far) avoided SSRIs because I've found that therapy works for me; and despite suffering from chronic insomnia, I don't take Ambien because I had a bad reaction to it, and Benadryl just makes me feel awful the next day  - instead I found a CBT approach that really worked for me.

Adding all this up means that for my child, I try to avoid medications unless truly indicated.  That means that I have done a "wait and see" approach to treat ear infections and non-symptomatic strep (I fill the script but wait 24 hours to see how the symptoms go); sought out an asthma doc that would support intermittent steroids for asthma provoked by colds; but you better believe I'm the first in line at Children's when something serious happens and my kid needs meds for croup or whatever.

I just feel like for myself (my own body), if it was possible that psychiatric drugs were making me really cranky, reactive, or otherwise feel really bad, I'd probably try a different approach or a break from meds.  But that's predicated on the underlying condition not being truly awful or life and death.  [/quote]

Oh, sorry, I forgot one last important point!  My child had a severe reaction to Penicillin at one point - among other symptoms, they thought he had a rash that could have turned into Stevens Johnson (look it up, horrifying -- it's a drug reaction that basically makes your body one giant blister.)  Ever since then I've taken side effects REALLY seriously.  A med with a serious side effect profile has to be exceedingly warranted for me.  That's why the warning on the "little rash" with Lamictal would absolutely make me make EXTREMELY sure that the drug was warranted and there was no other option.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics