Elliott began his anti-depression medication today. The medication he is on is called Remeron. This is a medication that until now, I’ve never heard of.
I was a bit uncomfortable with this because of how little we knew about it.
However, after meeting with his psychiatrist, Dr. Reynolds, it’s really the only option we have and by far the safest. We also met with his pediatrician at Akron Children’s Hospital as well. He agreed that this was the best option we had and because Elliott’s depression is so bad, we really needed to get this started.
Elliott is very capable of taking pills. However, he doesn’t like taking medicine at all.
In fact, simply asking him to do so led to a meltdown/panic attack and a flat out refusal to cooperate.
I know my son, and if we ever force fed medication to him, he would never ever cooperate in the future. It would also likely make things worse for him.
What I did was treat Elliott like a person who has control over his body. I explained to him about depression and that Mommy and Daddy are both being treated for depression as well.
After him and I talked about how sometimes a persons brain can forget how to things and can sorta get stuck feeling sad all the time, he decided to take his medication. I explained how the medication can help his brain to remember how to do certain things and help him to feel better.
This was one of the toughest decisions we’ve had to make.
However, it comes down to a quality of life issue and Elliott’s quality of life has been severely affected by depression. He’s in therapy and martial arts. I make time to talk with him when he needs anything. Unfortunately, these things aren’t enough and medication is needed to help him through this.
We never and I repeat, never take medicating our kids lightly.
Anytime that we have to make a decision, especially about medications, we do our due diligence. We even seek out second opinions if we aren’t comfortable with something.
Hopefully, this will all step in the right direction. Hopefully, we are helping him. 🙂
See Wikipedia’s info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remeron
Remeron is a noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant (NaSSA). It could help balance out stress response (reduce anxiety) and help improve mood at the same time.
From Medscape:
Tetracyclic structure different from SSRIs, TCAs and MAOIs; through its central presynaptic alpha2-adrenergic antagonist effects stimulates norepinephrine & serotonin release; potent antagonist of 5-HT2 & 5-HT3 serotonin and histamine receptors and it is a moderate alpha 1-adrenergic and muscarinic antagonist.
Trazodone is almost similar but Wikipedia cites Remeron is better than Trazodone.
I took Remeron once. I do mean quite literally once: it caused me to see things that were not there, and I didn’t want to take anti-depressants in the first place, so I threw the rest away and continued to suffer from severe depression for the next two and a half years.
I’m a bit of a lurker, but I wanted to tell you that i had treatment resistant panic attacks and depression and remeron was a wonder drug for me. You have to give it at night so it doesn’t make you too sleepy during the day and it also can cause weight gain. The unique thing about remeron is that the side effects decrease as you go up in dosage, so don’t get too discouraged about side effects until you are at a high enough dose.
I had almost complete remission for over three years before it suddenly stopped working. But every case is different and really, I wouldn’t trade those years for anything.
It take a few weeks to see if it works or not and then the dose might need tweaking.
I understand that it can be difficult for parents to medicate, especially with a strong drug like this, but I want to reassure you that if your child is suffering true distress and there is something that will treat it, you should go ahead. I have been sick since I was eight years old and tried every drug under the moon. My parents love me and fought tooth and nail to bring me back to myself. As long as you have a competent doctor that specializes in child psychiatry, you should be fine.
Good luck