Which anti depressant is your child on?

[Imsuchamess]

My sister 13 is a self harmer my mother has tried all other options and now wishes to try anti depressants. So can I ask which one your child takes? How they find it?

I've not got the experience to answer your question as yet but DS1 is about to go on Prozac. He's 8. He needs meds for anxiety and OCD. My friend has a DD2 who seems mega depressed, and they've been prescribed meds but she won't taken them.

I used to be a self harmer (was being bullied). I'm not saying this is right, or would work for your sister but my Mum was the one who got me to stop, just by telling me how she felt. The last thing I wanted to do was upset my Mum. You have to be careful obviously as if she's very fragile it could push the other way. Only you guys can judge.

Has she been to the GP? I think only CAMHS will prescribe for her age?Good luck.

Thank you for answering. My mum has tried telling how she feels It hasn't worked. I was a self harmer up until recently but I stopped in the hope my sister would follow suit she hasn't.

She is under cahms has a counsellor and a behaviour worker from social services. But nothing we do is stopping her. Her self harming is escalating she has carved the words fat ugly and dumb into her skin now.

She is different to me though I sh through burning mostly while she cuts they started of superficial but gradually they are getting deeper.

There is more her psychiatrist is adamant she is attention seeking. She has been caught out lying over major things. For example she told me she was pregnant I got a test which was negative and put her on the pill only to find out she is a virgin. She said to her counsellor she had had a major argument with me when we hadn't even had a crossed word. She said my mother beats her when she doesn't. Things like that.

She is not depressed in the typical sense (I have scizoaffective so get depressed a lot) her eating and sleeping have not changed. She still keeps up her activities. But she has depressed moments this is when she self harms. My mother is hoping a anti depressant will stop the depressed moments and hence stop the self harm.

ds2 has been on two different ones neither with great success but that was due to side effects rather than them not helping the anxiety / mood.

Fluoxetine, only very briefly, as he hated the taste (mint) and claimed it stopped him sleeping so refused to take it after a week.

Risperidone. Initially good, relatively fast acting and did improve the anxiety (e.g. did start to go out where it was very hard work previously) and mood (showed much more interest in the world). But for him there were side effects - increased appeitie, constantly going to the loo and again disrupted sleep (might have been due to loo issue). Much more serious two months after being on the drug he became basically psychotic - it was a dreadful period but he has improved since coming off the drug.

I do think he was unlucky in his reactions but it is important to watch out for side effects if you go this route.

Thank you for your experience oneineight. I am so sorry your DS went through that. Can I ask why he was placed on a anti psychotic as opposed to a anti depressant?

To be honest there are relatively few drugs licensed for use with children (he was just ten when prescribed). The psychiatrists preference was for fluoxetine but as I said he refused to take it because of taste and there was not another form available at the low dose he needed. Risperidone was her second choice and he was really prescribed it for anxiety rather than depression although it did help with the depression (his was manifest at this stage by inactivity and social withdrawal). The psychiatrist did spend a lot of time discussing the options with us before we made the decision so if your mother and sister decide to go this route there will be lots of opportunity to ask questions.

My son is on Sertraline. ..he's a bit older..was 16 when he started on it, but it has to be prescribed under the psychs as he's under 18 . He has very high anxiety (he has ASD) and it has been brilliant for him... he is so much more relaxed.
IME it's a long route to meds for children, as understandably they are reluctant to prescribe meds which potentially can have serious side effects (risk of suicide etc) so they would spend a lot time lookingat all options first.

Thanks all my mum says the cahms psychiatrist has offered anti depressants before but at the time she turned it down as she wanted to wait and see what therapy would do. So hopefully he will prescribe it.

DD2 is on Prozac. She is 20, but started to be offered it from about 16 onwards. She did find it hard to sleep, so the psychiatrist told her to take it in the mornings.