Is this depression or effects of the zoloft?

[mystic]

Hey guys, so it's now been some months after my son's depression/anxiety attack. Let me summarize his situation. He was diagnosed at age 4 with ADHD and "Mild" Autism, he had been doing fine until shortly before turning 15 mid last year when for the first time he started showing signs of depression and anxiety so we started taking him to a therapist but in september it became severe that I took him to the ER, they referred him to a Mental Hospital where he stayed 10 days to stabilize the suicidal thoughts and attempt and they put him on zyprexa. When discharged from that hospital, for the next month we saw signs of him getting back to normal then they recommend a Psychiatrist who switched the med to Zoloft and he has been on this ever since for a few months now. Problem is, since he started taking zoloft, no suicidal thoughts or issues BUT over time I am seeing new what may be side effects of the zoloft.

Mike used to be a very happy very active child prior to the attack and now he's the opposite. He was addicted to his computer and never watched much TV and he could not sit still for too long, he would keep running around the house and outside every so often whenever he needed a break from his computer. Now, he is the opposite, he's hardly on his computer anymore, watches more tv now not all day but more than he used to. He spends most of the time just lying down and staring into space and now he can't seem to focus on anything for more than a minute and when he's doing anything he will zone out lost in thought, you would think he's sleeping. I am also seeing more symptoms of full blown autism as time goes by.

His Psychiatrist says maybe the attack did more damage than we realize and now it's showing and taking over. I am thinking the zoloft might not be the med for him and thinking of going back to zyprexa but he says the zyprexa is only used to stabilize suicide issues and he needs the zoloft to battle the depression.

To complicate things even more, Mike's new Psych says that the procedure when administering new meds is to start with a low dose [25mg] see how it reacts then increase slowly and test but his previous Psych saw that the 25mg wasn't working so he increased within 2 weeks to 50mg then seeing that Mike as not doing well with symptoms getting worse he increased to 100mg again within 2 weeks. Now Mike is almost non-responsive, it's like it takes a few minutes to hear that we are asking him a question and spends most of the day doing nothing, lost in thought and cannot concentrate on anything for more than a minute.

His new psych says we are going to take off zoloft in a safe way going from 100 to 50 to 25 then when he's completely off the effects of the zoloft we can try other options. Can anyone tell me please if what Mike is experiencing might be the depression taking over or might it be the effects of the zoloft?

[Kixxi]

Hey guys, so it's now been some months after my son's depression/anxiety attack. Let me summarize his situation. He was diagnosed at age 4 with ADHD and "Mild" Autism, he had been doing fine until shortly before turning 15 mid last year when for the first time he started showing signs of depression and anxiety so we started taking him to a therapist but in september it became severe that I took him to the ER, they referred him to a Mental Hospital where he stayed 10 days to stabilize the suicidal thoughts and attempt and they put him on zyprexa. When discharged from that hospital, for the next month we saw signs of him getting back to normal then they recommend a Psychiatrist who switched the med to Zoloft and he has been on this ever since for a few months now. Problem is, since he started taking zoloft, no suicidal thoughts or issues BUT over time I am seeing new what may be side effects of the zoloft.

Mike used to be a very happy very active child prior to the attack and now he's the opposite. He was addicted to his computer and never watched much TV and he could not sit still for too long, he would keep running around the house and outside every so often whenever he needed a break from his computer. Now, he is the opposite, he's hardly on his computer anymore, watches more tv now not all day but more than he used to. He spends most of the time just lying down and staring into space and now he can't seem to focus on anything for more than a minute and when he's doing anything he will zone out lost in thought, you would think he's sleeping. I am also seeing more symptoms of full blown autism as time goes by.

His Psychiatrist says maybe the attack did more damage than we realize and now it's showing and taking over. I am thinking the zoloft might not be the med for him and thinking of going back to zyprexa but he says the zyprexa is only used to stabilize suicide issues and he needs the zoloft to battle the depression.

To complicate things even more, Mike's new Psych says that the procedure when administering new meds is to start with a low dose [25mg] see how it reacts then increase slowly and test but his previous Psych saw that the 25mg wasn't working so he increased within 2 weeks to 50mg then seeing that Mike as not doing well with symptoms getting worse he increased to 100mg again within 2 weeks. Now Mike is almost non-responsive, it's like it takes a few minutes to hear that we are asking him a question and spends most of the day doing nothing, lost in thought and cannot concentrate on anything for more than a minute.

His new psych says we are going to take off zoloft in a safe way going from 100 to 50 to 25 then when he's completely off the effects of the zoloft we can try other options. Can anyone tell me please if what Mike is experiencing might be the depression taking over or might it be the effects of the zoloft?

Hiya,

I was on Zoloft (100 mg) for seven years. When I started taking it I had a huge increase in anxiety and depression. This lasted for 2-3 weeks. Last month they took me off them and switched me to Citalopram. I had to stop taking them over a period of time and I must admit it was difficult. I am quite a happy person to begin with, but I suffer from anxiety and so I took those pills for a long time. When I came off them, I did feel depressed. Lasted for again 2-3 weeks. I am now one month on my different tablets and slowly feeling better. So yes, medication can definitely make you feel that way.

Hope this helped.

Kind regards,
Sandra

[mystic]

So yes, medication can definitely make you feel that way.Hope this helped.Kind regards,Sandra

Yes, it definitely does help Sandra, thank you very much for sharing! Now after a few days since stepping down to the lowest dosage, yesterday for the first time in weeks I started seeing a very slight turnaround in my son, he spent more time moving around instead of lying on his bed all day and was slight more responsive.

[gypsylee]

Hey guys, so it's now been some months after my son's depression/anxiety attack. Let me summarize his situation. He was diagnosed at age 4 with ADHD and "Mild" Autism, he had been doing fine until shortly before turning 15 mid last year when for the first time he started showing signs of depression and anxiety so we started taking him to a therapist but in september it became severe that I took him to the ER, they referred him to a Mental Hospital where he stayed 10 days to stabilize the suicidal thoughts and attempt and they put him on zyprexa. When discharged from that hospital, for the next month we saw signs of him getting back to normal then they recommend a Psychiatrist who switched the med to Zoloft and he has been on this ever since for a few months now. Problem is, since he started taking zoloft, no suicidal thoughts or issues BUT over time I am seeing new what may be side effects of the zoloft.

Mike used to be a very happy very active child prior to the attack and now he's the opposite. He was addicted to his computer and never watched much TV and he could not sit still for too long, he would keep running around the house and outside every so often whenever he needed a break from his computer. Now, he is the opposite, he's hardly on his computer anymore, watches more tv now not all day but more than he used to. He spends most of the time just lying down and staring into space and now he can't seem to focus on anything for more than a minute and when he's doing anything he will zone out lost in thought, you would think he's sleeping. I am also seeing more symptoms of full blown autism as time goes by.

His Psychiatrist says maybe the attack did more damage than we realize and now it's showing and taking over. I am thinking the zoloft might not be the med for him and thinking of going back to zyprexa but he says the zyprexa is only used to stabilize suicide issues and he needs the zoloft to battle the depression.

To complicate things even more, Mike's new Psych says that the procedure when administering new meds is to start with a low dose [25mg] see how it reacts then increase slowly and test but his previous Psych saw that the 25mg wasn't working so he increased within 2 weeks to 50mg then seeing that Mike as not doing well with symptoms getting worse he increased to 100mg again within 2 weeks. Now Mike is almost non-responsive, it's like it takes a few minutes to hear that we are asking him a question and spends most of the day doing nothing, lost in thought and cannot concentrate on anything for more than a minute.

His new psych says we are going to take off zoloft in a safe way going from 100 to 50 to 25 then when he's completely off the effects of the zoloft we can try other options. Can anyone tell me please if what Mike is experiencing might be the depression taking over or might it be the effects of the zoloft?

Hi there :)

I have a friend with Asperger's Syndrome and he has had a lot of trouble with anti-depressants. He's tried lots of different SSRIs and other anti-deps without much success. So I'm thinking your son might be the same as you say he has "mild Autism" (which is what Asperger's is I believe).

With the ADHD has he been treated with Ritalin or similar? The combination of Autism and ADHD would be very difficult (for him and for you). So I hope his psychiatrist is good and you feel comfortable with him.

In short, I would say the symptoms your son has been having are almost certainly a result of the Zoloft. My friend does not respond to SSRIs well at all. Of course, that's only one person's experience but my thinking is that people on the Autism spectrum have different brain chemistry to people who respond well to SSRIs (like myself).

Again, I think it's really important you trust your son's psychiatrist. My mother's ex-partner was a well respected child psychiatrist so I know a bit about these situations. Your son's brain is still developing and changing at 15yo so they need to be extra careful.

Also, I've been on Zyprexa myself and I agree with the psych that it's not a med you want to be on long-term (unless you have a psychotic illness such as Schizophrenia). The long-term effects of anti-psychotics are not nice at all.

Anyway, all the best to you and your son. Feel free to post on here about how you are going because it must be hard for you. I have a 13yo daughter and it's challenging enough without Autism or ADHD!

Bye for now,
Gypsy x

[mystic]

With the ADHD has he been treated with Ritalin or similar?

Hi and thank you very much for sharing! When Mike was in Ist grade, the teachers were insisting that we put him on some sort of med to calm his hyper activity but we refused and the older he got the better this got. My older son now 27 when he was in elementary with ADD, we had tried Ritlin but I stopped it after a couple of weeks after seeing him coming home and becoming more and more like a zombie, that is why I never medicated mike. We also plan to have Mike go through some neuro tesing and evaluations as soon as we find someone who will accept his insurance.

[gypsylee]

Hi and thank you very much for sharing! When Mike was in Ist grade, the teachers were insisting that we put him on some sort of med to calm his hyper activity but we refused and the older he got the better this got. My older son now 27 when he was in elementary with ADD, we had tried Ritlin but I stopped it after a couple of weeks after seeing him coming home and becoming more and more like a zombie, that is why I never medicated mike. We also plan to have Mike go through some neuro tesing and evaluations as soon as we find someone who will accept his insurance.

Oh okay fair enough. I know it helps some kids with ADHD but obviously not all.

Sounds like you have a good idea of what you are doing with your kids :)

[mystic]

Sounds like you have a good idea of what you are doing with your kids :)

Not sure of that at all :), it's a learning process for me and I am learning to adapt to the different situations as they come. What I am mostly aiming for is to get mike into an autism specific institute because what I have been seeing is that the more accessible mental health institutes are really "general" in nature, their Psychs and therapists are not as experienced in dealing with specific autism issues.