Is my DD over medicated? Thoughts and experiences please

[Yepanotherone]

My DD is sleeping until 1pm every day, and then when she eventually gets up, she's still yawning , glazed expression and no energy . We all think she's over medicated including her therapist , and even the Doctor said she's likely over medicated, but his priority is to keep her safe ( what ... .by knocking her out all the time so she can barely function ?)

She's on the following:

Limotragine: 300mg

Abilify: 20 mg

Propranolol: 2x20 mg

trileptal:900mg

Thoughts everyone for those of you with experience with these drugs ? I'm very grateful for all replies . I know drugs won't really be effective with BPD and I think the issue is that despite two hospital dr's indicating that my DD is presenting with BPD traits , her regular psychiatrist is still hellbent on saying she is Bipolar and is therefore treating her as such with all these meds ... .

Our objective is to better understand the struggles our child faces and to learn the skills to improve our relationship and provide a supportive environment and also improve on our own emotional responses, attitudes and effectiveness as a family leaders

[lbjnltx]

The only drug on that list that my d took was the abilify and it was in conjunction with Prozac.

I'm not a dr so I can't say anything about the rx's or dosage.  What I can say is that you should speak with her psychiatrist privately about your concerns and you do have the final say in what you give your minor child to ingest.

When my d was in RTC (her pdoc ie psychiatrist tried to change her medications) I refused to change her dosages or rx/s as I did not agree with the assessments nor did her primary therapist that saw her daily.

If your d is an adult you can still voice your concerns to her pdoc either privately or alongside her.  Unless a release of information form has been signed by an adult, the treating physician cannot communicate back... .that doesn't mean you can't let yourself be heard.

lbj

[Yepanotherone]

Thankyou lbj, I think I'm going to talk with the DR when we get back from vacation, it's probably not a good idea to make any adjustments just before we leave the country for 3 weeks .

[bpdmom1]

Is she sleeping through the night?  My daughter could not sleep on Abilify.  I think doctors over prescribe.  After a week in a mental hospital my daughter was so drugged up we had to work with a Dr. explaining all the side effects she had and ended up reducing her dose quite a bit.  I don't think determining which drug is the best fit is a science, more like trial and error.  My daughter is only on Lamictal 150mg.  Hard to say the drug is really helping, but she isn't having any noticible side effects.

[Yepanotherone]

BPD mom, she was having a really difficult time sleeping through the night and the dr felt it was the abilify activating her so he halved the dose for a couple of weeks from 20 mg to 10mg. Her suicidal thoughts came back though so he upped it to 15mg ( which was a compronise between him and my DD as she didn't want to go back up to 20mg. ) she started taking the Abilify in the morning rather than at night to see if that helped her sleep and it seems to have helped a bit , she's not waking up nearly as frequently as she was previously. After discharge from her latest hospitalization , her regular Dr put her back up to 20mg again, though " just to be on the safe side for now" , much to her frustration .

Dr said that it might be the tripleptal that has such a sedating effect on her but he seems loathe to make any changes of late.

[michmom]

Hi Yepanotherone,

My daughter takes each of the drugs you've listed except the Trileptal.  During all the assessment in trying to find the "right" dose,  I tried to find a functional balance for my daughter with side affects she could live with without hurting herself or others at the same time. She is sixteen and on half the doses as your D.   Always safety first.  I agree there is no one solution.

Hang in there and remember that diet, exercise and sleep impact daily the medications anyone takes.  Make sure and report those other observations to her doctor.

[lbjnltx]

I had many discussions with my daughter about her medications.  I encouraged her to increase her skill level if she wanted to decrease her pill level.

In other words... .more skills less pills.

Maybe it would be inspiring to your d too as it is a win win situation if she increases her ability to cope and can safely decrease her intake of medications.

Just an idea.

lbj