[Again!]

My 9 y/o son with RAD, and now possibly a varient of OCD has been in the RTC about 3 weeks. They are increasing his meds, but I spoke to the therapist yesterday and she actually sounded depressed about his case. He remains violent and is having rages almost daily. Not much progress. Not unexpected, but paradoxically I do feel better that I didn't 'give up' too soon.

[Lorraine123]

What meds did they prescribe?

[Again!]

Right now, neurontin, seroquil, geodon and depakote. He's also been on abilify, risperidol and a few ADD meds in the past (though he has NO features of ADD).

[aMarylandfamily]

Reading the list of medications currently being taken has me wondering who is prescribing that ... seems like an overlapping of meds to treat the same condition - thus over-medicating which could lead to the behaviors the psychiatrist is seeing as well as low amount of progress ... a "cocktail" is often the answer as long as its one that the variety of ingredients compliment and assist each other not fight with each other in the blood stream! If you haven't asked, I would ask for the reasoning behind such a large amount of medications plus the value each has on the other ...

[Lorraine123]

I too would ask what each medication is prescribed for.

[Again!]

Actually the psychiatrist went throught the rationale in painful detail in a 2.5 hour conversation when I brought the child to the facility. I'm an MD so I think he was excited to find someone that could understand the big words. I'm pretty convinced that no medication is going to help this condition, and interestingly, the psychiatrist echoed that. Since you asked :> he believes two types of problems end up in RTC: bipolar and this other condition which he believes is OCD varient. The reason those problems require out of home placement (and not, for example, schizophrenia) is the violence. The bipolar kids, according to him, uniformly have ADD. The other subset do not have ADD, but have some features of OCD especially including hoarding. That subset, btw, sounds like RAD to me. Unfortunately, his observation has been that the bipolar kids respond to meds, but the other subset do not. I am paying cash for this RTC placement, and this is the last chance before disruption, so I'm all for trying anything that someone thinks will work, as nothing else has! I maintained this child for over 2 years on no meds, and frankly I don't see any difference now.