Medication Holidays, ADHD, and the outdoors

[DanKroh]

"He can't handle any of them. The main three Ritalin, Adderil and Concerta are front end drugs. They cause an increased production of the lacking neural transmitter chemical at the front end to flood the receptors at the back end.

Strattera is not a stimulant but a blocking agent at the back end to direct the the lacking chemical to the right receptors. Help me out here Dan."

 

Yep, your analogy is a pretty good one. Strattera is a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (for anyone else who would know what that means). The stimulants make the brain manufacture more norephinephrine, while Strattera makes the brain use what norephinephrine it already has more efficienty.

 

"DanK. Liver profiles and platelets for Depakote, TSH levels for HypoT caused from Lithium, (he's on Synthroid)and of course the Lithium levels."

 

Ahh, so he's having his liver stuff checked anyway for other reasons. Lithium... yikes. Yeah, I'm actually a little surprised my son has done as well on Strattera as he has, given that we had previously tried Paxil for some OCD issues and it made him stop sleeping. But their mechanisms are just different enough to make all the difference. Amazing stuff.

 

The wonderful minefield, er, I mean, world of psychotropic pharmaceuticals.(This message has been edited by DanKroh)

[LongHaul]

Sorry Dan I thought you were the psychiatrist in the group, my bad. I thought that long term use of Ritalin and the like had a bad effect on the Liver and internal plumbing, and that was why some Doctors took kids off for the summer. I left the decision up to my sons because I know how I felt while taking the drug and didn't want to be without it. It was a hard decision to stop taking it myself and only did so because I lost my heath coverage and had to cut expenses so my stuff went first. I just question 2 day Med Holidays as being ineffective. As you said if it's a holiday because of side effects then maybe the parents, boy and doctor need to look for alternate preparations. If a boy is taking the medication because his internal chemical balance is messed up, reaching in and giving everything a stir every 5 days seems counter productive.

LongHaul

 

[DanKroh]

No problem, LH.

 

My doctorate is in psychology, so I'm not an M.D., but a Psy.D. I did take a lot of pharmacology classes, and I know a lot about psychotropics because, well, it helps a lot in my practice to know what I'm talking about. Plus I have a lot of personal experience with these particular class of meds.

 

I just wanted to put that disclaimer out there though, because I don't actually prescribe. I hope any info you gleaned from that was still helpful.

[ASM915]

DanK,

500mg Depakote BID, 450 Lithium BID, 200 Seroquel QID and PRN and he's still going strong. Sleeps good at night, but not tired during the day. That's enough to put half the hospital to sleep. Go figure.

One day I accidentally got a hold of one of the 200 Seroquels instead of a Tylenol by accident. That was real interesting. slept like a baby for 18 hours. Probably the best sleep I've gotten in years. The wifey drug me in for Dan's 4 PM appointment. Took the pill around 11AM. The doc thought it was hilarious.

[ffemt92]

Fellow Scouters, good day to you. Before I begin, a bit about myself. I am a Cub Master in Dahlgren, VA. On a personal level, my son is ADHD, Aspergers and SID along with that, my wife and daughter are Bi-Polar. I am not a doctor, but I can tell you this from daily interaction's, that med's are there for a reason. Yes, I do agree that it may be overdiagnosed at times, but there is a reason for the meds. In my son's case his 'other abilities' are caused by either a chemical unbalance in the brain and 'short circuit's/delays' in the electronics of the brain. This is soemthing that he was born with and will never go away. He has learned to work through some things as time has went on. Family and self education are the key to 'medication vacations'. Not to discount the ability of my fellow scouters, but you should not be placed in the position of a boy not taking meds and then being responsible for them. If the parent has made the decision to give them that break, then they need to attend camp with their son. Especially if mom or dad knows how to address them when off med's. If the scout knows that he takes meds at certain times and why, that is 75% of the battle. But, this reasoning and education starts at home, NOT on a camp out. There are several scouts who are very self educated in regarding their own matters, and caring scouters to help them. Unfortunately we have families/parents that do not preach that, which puts us in these situations.

To mirror what some of you have mentioned, it is education on the CM or SM's part as well. Not to become an expert, but to have some sort of knowledge working with the scouts with 'other abilities'. A bit of knowledge will help things tremendously and ensure that the parents understand their obligation as well.

I look forward to sharing ideas regarding this matter or anything else to do with scouting. My address is robert.ehrhart@navy.mil and pack172va@yahoo.com

YIS,

Rob Ehrhart

Cub Master Pack 172

[ASM915]

Rob,

Welcome to the Forum. Well said. I have a very simular family situation. Every one in the family is either ADD (myself and oldest son) or Bipolar (wife and youngest son, he's also falls in the High Functioning Autistic Specrum Disorder realm.)

 

Just had another Biplor boy join the Troop Mon. night. I'm interested in how you handle things. You can contact me at ericcprather@sbcglobal.net.