steroids and hyper behaviour

[sphil]

DS2 has just had to go back onto a steroid inhaler (becotide) for asthma. He's also just finished a course of oral steroids. It seems to have made his behaviour very different - he is normally placid and fairly quiet, but has become extremely noisy and more demanding and stroppy than usual - refusing to wear certain clothes and do certain activities that he would normally just have accepted.

In many ways this is a positive thing - he can be abnormally passive and I think it's much better and more natural for him to assert himself. He has also become more verbal - he seems to be able to find words more easily and quickly than before, which is great. But there's also more verbal stimming with noises, not so great at 5 am! And more stimming in general too.

Anyone else experienced this?

Yeah, DD once had steroids for a bad bronchial infection (about the only time she's been ill, actually). After two nights of her not going to bed until 3 a.m. we decided to stop it. Stroppy, tense, overexcited, wouldn't sleep. So, for us not positive, but I can see where you're coming from!

This happened to ds2 when he first started using his Becotide inhaler. He's hyper at the best of times but it was 100 times worse.

The good news is that the effects did eventually wear off (after a week or two, I think) and now it has no effect on his behaviour at all.

Oh good - although I'm pleased about the positive stuff, I'm not happy about it being due to unnatural causes iyswim.

My dd is steroid dependant and her dose is increased when she is ill, I always know when I've increased it for too ong because she starts behaving really differently, she gets hyperactive and can't sleep and is very demanding.

Yes, they should have told you this it is well known that steroids affect behaviour. DD had them for grunty passages(!) and she was awful, really clingy and hard work. I have been taking them for over 10 years and of course my behaviour is exemplary!

when DS got prescribed prednisolone steroids (mistakenly but that's another story!) I was told to expect hyper behaviour and the doc semi-apologised for giving the first dose late in the evening and to expect a rough night. Oddly enough I don't think it did make him hyper....

I give dd her meds just before bed, if I don't get her there quickly enough it can make her really hard to settle.