Sertraline/Fluoxetine and depression in 17 year old

[plantlady]

Hi, my 17 year old son has been on Fluoxetine for depression since February. He seemed to get better over the summer but lately has been getting worse again so is now in the transition period between stopping fluoxetine and starting sertraline. Has anyone experience of doing this with their teen? Did it help? Did anything else help? DS's counsellor at CAMHS has been off sick for weeks so he's not had any help there for 2 months which is really not helping and he doesn't really want to talk to me. came home today wanting to sharpen the axe for "something mindless and repetitive to do to take his mind off things" Needless to say I said no!

So sorry you're having to go through this. I've been there with my DD; she started on fluoxetine when she was 17, that worked for a while then didn't seem to be working any more, so she came off that and went onto another one. That helped for a while, but she's now changed to something else. Unfortunately it all seems to be a bit random which drugs work and the only way to find out is to try them.

It's been a long journey for us and we're still not through. Things that have helped have been finding a really good psychologist for her, spending time with her distracting her from her thoughts, and reading lots about depression so I could understand what she was going through.

One thing that helped her to talk about it was cartoons like the hyperbole and a half ones at hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/depression-part-two.html. They created a good starting point for her to explain what she was going through and for me to ask questions. There are others too which you could find by googling - it may be other ones are closer to your son's particular experience.

You're on a well trodden and painful path. But one thing you can be thankful for is that he has asked for help. That is the most enormous step and takes a huge amount of courage.

I do hope things get easier for you.

I'm sorry you are going through this. If his CAMHS counsellor/worker is sick and an alternative hasn't been offered write to the Head of the unit and ask what alternative arrangements are being put in place and when they will start as ge has had no support for two months. I'd,also note that you are concerned and that you expect them to fulfil their responsibilities and if your son deteriorates you expect this to be dealt with.

Thanks to you both for your support. Thankfully DS's counsellor is now back and he saw her today. It took a couple of fairly serious meltdowns (one at school) followed up by calls to his Camhs doctor to get squeezed in as a priority and we now have fortnightly meetings booked in for the next 3 months. DS gets on really well with this counsellor so fingers crossed.

I did some research on depression and inflammation as DS developed depression at same time as a series of allergies and he's now taking an omega 3 oil dose with 1g EPA per day. it's a lot but might help (along side his medication as well). Worth looking into as there's some research going on at the moment (early days, no clinical recommendations yet).

Is fluoxetine the same as venlafaxing? I would highly recommend venlafaxine over sertraline, after a 15 year trial and error with pretty much everything. How many mmgs is he on? Nothing touched me until I got up to 150mg of venlafaxine.