Try the abilify.  If she is suffering from mental illness, this medication could help her.  The internet can be dangerous with providing information about medications.  5mg is a good starting dose of abilify.

--

ds age 17 - lithium, abilify, saphris, namenda, klonopin

Kacie and Beth

 If we had a do-over we would start with the CAM approaches before meds with our daughter.  We would have started first with diet and also with nutritional testing, then added supplements. We would take a hard look at physical causes, including comprehensive hormone evaluations (still elusive to us).  Then only after all else failed, would we try the medications if we had a do-over.   But the CAM approach is a slow process that is not well established nor respected in the medical community. 

DAN! doctors (defeat autism now) are probably the most widely available resource for helping with the CAM approach.  Integrative medicine doctors, functional medicine doctors, or naturopathic doctors can be a big help, especially if familiar with psychiatric disorders. (Naturopaths have training somewhat like a general MD, but I would not suggest chiropractors nor homeopathic doctors nor any other alternative medicine)   The best choice would be one of a few psychiatrists around the country who practice integrative techniques. 

We have had quite the experience over the last few years with the medicine path.  At first, we had our sweet angel back and it was absolutely wonderful.  Within a few months, the meds stopped working.  Increase the dose and it works.  Not working again, increase dose again.  Works for a few days, increase dose again.  Not sleeping, gaining lots of weight, mentally slowed, and raging.  Add a new med, it helped for a few weeks.  Upped the new med dose.  Not working again.  Drop the first med and change to new med, heart troubles now.  Decide to monitor closely.   Still raging, add another new med, now over-medicated and raging worse than ever.  A hospitalization that does nothing.  Drop a med, still raging.  Try another med.  Now an emergency hospitalization, ER terminates all meds and insurance cuts off and hospital discharges before reestablishing meds.  Now serious drug withdrawals and very bad rages.  Another hospitalization and insurance cuts us off again, but hospital keeps us in (whew).......   Now today we are working very hard trying to make the CAM solution work, and are having some good progress, far better than ever with meds alone and with a whole lot less meds than before.  We are still having breakthroughs, but I attribute most of the progress to diet+nutritional supplements.  I think 1/2 the reasons for the symptoms we still have is because we don't yet have the CAM approach quite correct, and the other 1/2 are the meds themselves.   

However, we realize not all works as planned.  That the crisis can be so severe, that more hospitalization was the only answer.  We also realize that everybody is struggling to make the best possible choices with all kinds of unique situations. What works for one family is impossible for another. And lastly, every single person on this web site has had difficult struggles and feels your pain and really wants you to succeed.  Ourselves and everybody else on this web site will completely support your decisions no matter what they may be.

Best of luck,   

Brian

--

Daughter 7 BP/violent rages. Unsuccessful with multiple meds. Now reasonably stable for last 3 Months (with a few regressions) on Intuniv + Restrictive diet + True Hope's EMPowerPlus & AminoPowerplus + NAC + Q10 + low dose lithium (no more fish oil).

--Hi Kacie,

My response might be a bit late, I just read it.  My daughter (16) was also just disagnosed with BP II and she was prescribed Abilify, she goes to a child and adolescent psychiatrist, who is very conservative with meds, which I am so thankful for, because abilify was not the right med for my daughter.  We started with a very low dose of 2mg a days for 2 weeks.  This dose helped her mood, her anger was gone and depression got a little better, but because it was such a low dose the effects were gone by 5 pm and  she started getting really angry and irritated at that time.  I would give her the abilify at around 8 pm to help her with sleep, but it did not help much with the sleep and/or anxiety, and it took a long time to start working.  So the doctor increased the dose to 5mg, and it was really bad, her depression came back big time, and she starting having problems with restlesness, anxiety was worse, and she developed the restless leg syndrome.  we went to the doctor and took her off the abilify immediately.  Now we are trying lithium, but we are starting at a very low dose again, by the 5th day I see a bit of improvement with sleep, but she is irritable in the evenings.  i was feeling hopeless, but I have the feeling that the lithium is slowly working.  next week we will see the doc again, and we'll go up in the dosis, hopefully it will lift the depression, which is so heart breaking to see in your own child.

Communicate with your doctor, any concerns call him right away, never hesitate.  be watfull of all side effects.

Paola MDLM

Kacie,

If you read up on any of the meds used to treat BP, you will find scary stories for all of them.  But the truth is, the disease is scary, and the long-term implications of not treating it are even scarier.  Whether you start with meds now or explore CAM first, be sure to get as much information as possible.  It is extremely helpful, I would say necessary, to keep some sort of daily mood diary.  There are many mood charts available, or you can create one for yourself.  It doesn't have to be fancy, just a way to systematically record her sx and moods.  You especially want to note sleep, rate and content of speech, signs of depression  or mania, irritability, and school. 

Here is a link to the Expert Treatment Guidelines and the AACAP BP Med Guide.  I highly recommend reading these and keeping a copy handy so you can become more familiar with the commonly used meds.  Abilify is a lifesaver med for some people, a good med for others, and just doesn't work for still others.  It has a high rate of akathesia, which is a feeling of inner restlessness.  My ds17 could not tolerate it for that reason.  The general guidelines recommend starting with MS's such as lithium, Trileptal, Tegretol, Depakote or Lamictal.  AP's are generally used for pschosis and explosiveness.

It is always important to rule out any common physical causes for mood sx, especially thyroid dysfunction.  Hopefully the pdoc ordered some baseline labwork which included  thyroid tests.

--

Brenda,51, TBMF Parent to Parent Volunteer
Mom to A, 17, BP, Tourette's, OCD, ADHD: Eskalith CR, Lamictal, Cytomel, Allegra
E, 15 1/2, BP,AS: Seroquel, Eskalith CR, inositol, Buspar
B, 14 & H, 11
Married 18 years to DH, 50

FROM TBMF: Do not start, stop, or change medications or other treatments for yourself or your child based on what you read on this Website or elsewhere on the Internet. Information presented here should not replace the considered judgement of a doctor who knows you or your child.