Antidepressants in UK for 14 year old

[loulou1979]

our DD has been struggling with mental health for over a year. She is getting worse and worse - I won’t go into it all but recently things have been very bad, she’s suicidal, impulsive and unpredictable and has ended up in several very dangerous situations that could have been fatal. I have been banging my head against a wall trying to get CAMHS to see her but they won’t assess her until next year as her needs are complex despite her being suicidal. She starts private therapy soon but I’m convinced she also needs short term medication over the next few months whilst that therapy kicks in. Can anyone provide any advice on the following?

1. how would we go about getting a private prescription in uk for her? Who do we approach and where to start?
2. what antidepressants do they prescribe for under 16s? Is fluoxetine one of them ?
3. would the gp have any influence over CAMHS to escalate her as she’s suicidal? CAMHS won’t budge despite her being a danger to herself
4. should the CAMHS crisis team consider her for assessment now that she has become suicidal? Do they prescribe?

any advice would be welcome as I’m so worried about her and can literally see her deteriorating 😭

I wouldn’t go down the med route, children on antidepressants have been linked to an increase in suicide. Is she being bullied at school? What’s going on for her to be so depressed? Too much academic pressure?

You'd need a psychiatrist.

We got one through our medical insurance.

They can prescribe.

My DS was given fluoxetine.

Oh, and GP has zero influence over CAMHS

For my then 15yo we went through The Priory for a private consultant psychiatrist. She has been on fluoxetine for 4 years now but we have been gently cutting down for the past 18 months and expect to stop by Easter. (Going very slowly and only when other things in life are stable, eg college holidays).

My understanding is that yes there is increased risk when initially on fluoxetine, but then the body adjusts and it starts to work properly. The increased risk can be mitigated a bit by increasing dose gradually.

For us DD needed the meds to enable her to access the therapy, it was a hand in hand solution. She is only now also tailing off the therapy too.

In terms of costing it was ~£350 for initial consultation and ~£250 for follow ups. We had to pay for initial meds but GP took over once on a stable dose. When DD was 18 we were handed fully back to GP.

Edited to say, my DD wasn't as bad as yours, no major self harm, so we knew we had no hop of CAMHS. She missed a year of school however.

As above, private consultant Psychiatrist xx