Posted by JadeKelly on December 3, 2008, at 9:59:42
In reply to invega, posted by wamazon on November 22, 2008, at 21:20:05
> Help!
> I am a foster mom to a non-verbal young man diagnosed with autism/severe retardation/bi-polar
> whom has been on invega for almost one year. I think this medication is doing him more harm than good. He has rapid cycling episodes of happiness then agitation/aggression which are almost as intense as what he exhibited when experiencing withdrawals after being suddenly pulled off of zyprexa due to liver complications in Dec'07. If anyone has experienced invega for the good or bad and its side effects, can you please share with a very sad and frustrated care-giver.
> Thank you.Hello there,
You must be terribly frustrated and sad. Its so difficult to watch someone you care about suffer on a daily basis. I, too, have no experience with Invega, however, I do have experience with the medicine merry go round. I have to say I agree with Racer, I don't think his Bi-Polar is being managed.
My son is also Bipolar, started at 16, and the manic stages were aggressive, similar to what you described, and quite frankly, scary. He was rapid cycling for 9 months and it didn't stop until they had him so drugged up he was like a non-person. It was heartbreaking. So after a period of time, I couldn't bare it and did what you are doing. He takes depakote for epilepsy so we had our mood stablizer, PDoc's added large doses of Risperdal, then Abilify, they even put him on Haldol when the benzos made his mania worse.
He was only in the hospital for a week at a time (3x total) but I'd seen enough in there, and at home. I finally found a psychiatrist we could work with (for now), and we tried him on Seroquel. They said it wouldn't be strong enough for him. We started it any way, dealt with some pretty aggressive behavior at home (help from family, hope you get same) and titrated the Seroquel to a safe level that also has his Bipolar symptoms gone for almost a year. He is wonderful, easy to be around, mostly, and most importantly he is himself.
What I'm getting at is the meds can make the difference. But I think you know that or you wouldn't be here! Good for you for not just excepting what they hand out. Keep trying, something miraculous may come along!
Good luck to you, I'm going to look that med up when I'm done here. Surprized I've never heard of it. Keep us posted on how you do, and I hope you find the right meds for your foster child soon.
~Jade
PS-there are some really smart people on babble, I hope they see your thread and can help. I'll ask around, too.
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poster:JadeKelly
thread:864774
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/newbs/20080507/msgs/866421.html