Antidepressant for Manic Raging
Posted by pilgrim on January 2, 2012 at 5:43pm
Our daughter is almost always manic. I have never seen depression, as such. But usually the doctors want to say that her anger is depression.
She is given to irritability, anger, and psychotic raging when manic. IS this a form of depression? DOES she need an antidepressant? 3 of the SSRI's when tried in the past did not improve her symptoms. I don't know if they need to give it up or keep trying different antidepressants. Would this help manic anger, dysphoric mania?
--
Pilgrim, dd 20 , BP, PDD, PTSD; risperdal, and other meds being trialed.
Just an opinion... IF it is from MANIA, then, no, an SSRI would be contra-indicated.
When my younger daughter would "flip" into raging psychotic mania, it would be preceded by happy happy happy, go go go, talk, talk, talk.... and suddenly WHAM!
She tended to depression, BUT, she did NOT need an antidepressant to stop that kind of psychotic mania. She needed her mood stabilized. She needed other types of treatment.
She did, overall, require stimulating non-SSRI treatment to combat depression (Wellbutrin, which was then replaced with rhodiola and vital adapt), BUT, that was after she was no longer having manic symptoms.
--Jeanie aka "Naomi"
ItsNotMental
Older dd: formerly(?) teen-onset bipolar (morphed into ultradian cycling): "Recovered" after over 13 years - stable off psych meds almost two years. Now fine on just diet changes and higher thyroid levels (after healing - addressing gut issues/Candidal overgrowth while using EMPowerPlus and other supplements). She added a little EMpowerPlus back on as a multivitamin simply because she feels better on it - gets sick less often.
Younger dd: formerly(?) Childhood-onset schizoaffective, TS, OCD, anxiety, PTSD, migraines. After over 15 years, is now "recovered" for almost 5 years after treating endocrine issues, food sensitivities, gut issues, sleep issues, nutritional/mitochondrial needs.
Our daughter is much the same. She does have periods of elation and loopiness and talking fast, but mostly it is anger, irritability and raging. The thing is, this is what MANIA looks like (or can look like) in children. They can tend to get the angry side of mania more than the elation: but that doesn't mean it is not mania.
Of course work with a pdoc, and this is just an opinion: but be very very cautious about the SSRIs. We always felt our daughter was more manic than depressed, but we felt we were swimming upstream with her pdocs. As she started to get admitted more and more for rages they began to understand.
But bottom line, is that I wish my husband and I had taken a firmer stand against the SSRIs from the start. We were so happy when we finally found a doctor who diagnosed her accurately and listened to us, that we didn't want to rock the boat and we were not as strenuous against the SSRIs as I wish we had been. We are now 3.5 years into this, and she is just now being tapered off the SSRIs. I refuse to flinch this time and I am going to wait a good six months to see where we stand before she goes back on anything like that, if needed.
Again--this is just our experience. But I would encourage you to do your research and be assertive in finding a pdoc that has a like minded philosphy with you, and understand what mania can look like in children.
--
Jennie (37) depression treated effectively with lexapro
Husband (58)
daughter Alison (14)
Bipolar I with episodes of psychosis; Oppositional Defiant Disorder
lithium, depakote, zyprexa, zoloft
My dd had severe anger and rages like that too. After talking to HER when she was finally more stable, I found out it WAS because she was so depressed.
Is your dd on a mood stabilizer? (I saw she is on risperdal which is an AP) although OUR pdoc keeps saying it is also a mood stabilizer with antidepressant qualities. Really...cause it's NOT WORKING!
Anyway, our dd has been on four types of an SSRI. None of them have worked. TODAY I am calling and demanding a change. Looking back four years, lexapro pur her in a serious manic state. But...we were so new to this and I was clueless. Just our experience.
But to answer your question, yes this could be depression. Kids tend to act out more in rage and irritability than how adults present themselves.
--
L Anxiety, Lexapro
Mom to:
T (16) Mood disorder (Depression, Anxiety, OCD, BP, SA, ADD?), Risperdal 1mg morning/night, Zoloft 150 mg., Abilify 5mg., Trazadone 100 mg.
Also has hypoplastic left heart syndrome (open heart surgery 3X), Lisinopril, Aspirin
10th grade-currently going to school online at home.
J (13)
J and C (10)
As Naomi mentioned, her daughter used welbutrin rather than an ssri. Though it is still an AD, it works thru norepinephrine rather than directly on serotonin. There's been research showing that genetic predisposition may make using one or the other more effective. I found that adhd meds can also help, again because it affects the norepinephrine route.
--
Darryl - parent volunteer, dad to
Levi, 12, stable using supps and diet exclusively since June 07. Previously treated and stable with med combo inc. lithium, 900mg seroquel, and small amounts of risperdal, luvox and focalin after being dx'd at age 3 1/2.