Prozac and Adderall

My son was diagnosed with ADHD around first grade. I fought the school for as long as I could regarding putting him on Ritalin. I finally did at 3rd grade.
It works wonderful for him. I only gave it to him in the afternoon when he had his major classes, not on the week-ends or summer vacation. I can remember wanting him to have it all the time so we could all have sanity!

Last year he started High School and asked for a clean start….NO RITALIN. Well we tried it. He did great for the first marking period. He even made honor roll and was involed in may sports & activities. Second marking period came and the same ‘ole stuff, not doing work, forgetfull, sassy, detentions and suspensions.
(Some I didn’t feel he deserved, but I’m his Mom! )

10TH Grade, HE ASKED ME for his medication. He said he wants to start the year off right and stay that way. “I want to prove myself” He said “I never told you this before, but I cannot concentrate at all without my meds.” I see so much more maturaty in him. He made the honor roll again this first marking period. He takes 20mg mid morning week days and that is it. He told me that if he does not have his meds. a cup of coffee helps. Stimulants….

*I did want to point out that when he was young certain foods made him “act up”. Red tomato sauces, pizza and some fruit juices.

He is now 16 an a peach to be around, he really is my buddy. I keep tight reins on him though. He wants his drivers licience! AH! I am not ready for that! lol

I hope that he does outgrow ADHD. He had come so far.
I would love to hear form others who had this as a child and have outgrown it at puberty. Has anyone else noticed trigger foods? What foods help?

Thanx

My ds took prozac for tic-related OCD, and about a year later began adderall for ADD. The day we upped the initial dose of Adderall, he began complain of pains in all his joints. (He is not a complainer.) I couldn’t get a hold of the doctor and posted in desperation on a TS forum. I got several replies indicating this could be serotonin syndrome triggered by the adderall. I took him off the adderall until we could get to the doctor—who poo pooed the symptoms (which ds still talks about 4 years later so I know it was bad). We went back to the initial dose of adderall, and introduced the upping of the dosage over a much longer time frame. He did not get the symptoms again.

Ds was on prozac for a number of years, and I broached many times the idea of taking him off it with the doctor, who strongly discouraged it. Ds had numerous side effects—hot all the time, weight gain and after a point it wasn’t helping at all. Doc’s response was to up the prozac (still not helpful), which led to general itchiness all over, resulting in constant scratching that broke open the skin, which got infected. The summer camp even called me the first day, inquiring about his severe skin infection (all over arms and legs) because they would not allow him to swim for fear it was contagious. Again, doc, though admitting itchiness can be a side effect of prozac, was totally dismissive it could be caused by prozac because the side effect was considered “rare.” (Really wish ds did not like the doc so well or I would have switched.)

Then I discovered cognitive behavior therapy for OCD. On the psych’s recommendation, we took ds off prozac and substituted tenex (very low dose) and did the therapy. Because his OCD was tic-related, the OCD took a year and a half, but we saw excellent results within three to four months, at which point we stopped the tenex as well. CBT is a very hard treatment for both child and parent, but it is drug free and can effect cures, unlike the meds. My son is almost totally OCD free. The little that is left is very manageable—we could probably get rid of that through more CBT, but right now it isn’t worth it.

In retrospect, this is what I would have done: use strattera for attention (we switched from adderall in February when it became available and we have had absolutely no side effects unlike the adderall—which I’ve heard BTW can induce OCD) and deal with the OCD with CBT.

dunno bout adderall inducing OCD… but it can cause hallucinations and depression (had both when i took it… went away a couple weeks after i stopped. they appeared after taking it for 3-4 months.) and that was 15mg daily.

Mara, I have a 4 year old with OCD and after a few failed-attempts with our local Psychologists I took her to the Yale Child Care Center in New Haven, CT. The doctor said that with young people you really must start with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy first because it is usually successful. Meds are a last resort and they are not always helpful. He also recommended a book called Freeing Your Child from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by Tamar E Chansky, Ph.D.

I also found out about the hottest areas of research while there at Yale. Autoimmunity may be the source of OCD for many kids. They already know that an autoimmune response to Strep can cause OCD. I have another child with ADHD and I think someday some of these cases of ADHD will be found to be autoimmune and be treated with medications that reflect that etiological cause.

Good luck, Terry

Regarding guest member having hallucinations; Keep in mind that your side effect was unusual to Adderal. Visual hallucinations and depression can be symptoms of Bi-polar disorder. Audio hallucinations and depression can be symptoms of Scizophrenia. Both these conditions overlap many symptoms with ADHD and are often misdiagnosed as ADHD. Both these conditions are brought out of dormancy or worsened by amphets. I’m not a doctor nor do I think this is any kind of diagnosis, and I don’t mean to scare you, but it’s a red flag at least.

Actually, I have heard of many cases of psychosis induced by amphetamines - used to see them all the time when I did hospital evals. It is a lot less common if the prescibed dosage is followed, but it is not extremely rare. Also, SSRIs (Prozac, etc.) can cause manic episodes, and even psychosis in a small number of cases. This is becoming well acknowledged in the medical community. If there is any sign of psychosis that wasn’t there before the meds started, ask your doctor to stop the meds and see what happens. There is always time to look further if that doesn’t help, but I’d hate to see someone get diagnosed with a major mental illness when it was a medication side effect. :(

[quote=”Caren”]Regarding guest member having hallucinations; Keep in mind that your side effect was unusual to Adderal. Visual hallucinations and depression can be symptoms of Bi-polar disorder. Audio hallucinations and depression can be symptoms of Scizophrenia. Both these conditions overlap many symptoms with ADHD and are often misdiagnosed as ADHD. Both these conditions are brought out of dormancy or worsened by amphets. I’m not a doctor nor do I think this is any kind of diagnosis, and I don’t mean to scare you, but it’s a red flag at least.[/quote]

i dont have any syptoms of schizophrenia/bipolar (that im aware of), and all hallucinations/depression disappeared a couple weeks after i was off adderall.

btw they were audio hallucinations.