The Po Show

My Comment Response :)

I started a comment response to TC's comment to the entry below, and it just got way too long to be a comment :).

Regarding the meds, I've wondered whether his being on Ritalin and Zoloft contributed to his Spring Breakdown. They were both prescribed by the Bad Psychiatrist, and the Good Psychiatrist said he should not have been on either. He was on ramped up dosages of both by the end, and was on for a total of 6 months of Ritalin and 5 months of Zoloft. I pulled the Ritalin after he hit the girls in gym and got suspended back in March, and the Good Psychiatrist told me to stop the Zoloft after she made her assessment. Anyway, they were definitely the wrong drugs for him, and may have been a factor in the physical aggression, since he had not hit a kid since the very beginning of first grade. I felt like such an idiot once I thought the whole thing through. It just goes to show how trapped we get by lure of insurance coverage, which kept us going to the Bad Psychiatrist, whom I'd had reservations about from the first visit (after she unceremoniously told me that she didn't think Matthew had Asperger's, despite a lengthy report from one of the most world-renowned experts in Asperger's saying he did. The Bad Psychiatrist's response to that was "Well, I don't put much stock in the evaluations of psychologists." Ack), since she was covered by our insurance and was the ONLY child psychiatrist around here who was taking new patients and was in our plan.

I honestly cannot tell you whether he's been better on Seroquel or not. He's been on drug for 6 months now, but up to full therapeutic dosage for less than 3 months. The Good Psychiatrist (the one who charges $250 a session) feels that we haven't maxed out on the drug yet. But I don't think it's made a negative impact (other than contributing to him gaining 11 pounds this summer!). He's certainly no MORE agitated, irritable, prone to lashing out. He did stop chewing on everything he could get his hands on, but he did start stimming more (he walks around in circles even more now, clapping his hands and jumping up and down. He was doing it non-stop on the playground at recess when I arrived for pick-up the first week of school and I thought, "Great, now the kids are going to think he's even more of a freak."

But I digress. And thanks.