My eight year old child

Meg,my eight year old child has been in theripy for 4 years.She has seen many psychiatrest,psyotharipest,social workers,counclers,allergest,and psycolagest.No one has been able to help us.Meg,has difficulties with handling her emotions.She is procived as being in a nutrial state of emoitions but,if any outside/inside stimulas accours she is completly uncontrolable.She is very phyical,she will tackel anyone and anything without fear.Hitting ,bitting,kicking.throwing of things,threats of harm to others,and verbley abusive.We have tryed Adderal and some allergie meds..The side affects become more exstream then the origenal problem.My husband and I have been councling to help us understand our child,to check out our parenting skills.No one is perfictbut,we have tryed everything prasentted to us and we are at the end of our hope.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Roberta,

It is likely that your daughter can receive some help which will result in improvement of some of her more troubling symptoms, particularly her reactive rage and aggression. A number of childhood disorders can result in the sorts of behaviors you are witnessing, but a likely possibility is a mood disorder. Adderall (adderrall), the medication you mentioned, is a stimulant compound which is used to treat Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. While your daughter may display ADHD, that condition is typified by the kinds of behaviors you mentioned. But there are other medications that might benefit her, including certain antidepressants and mood stabilizing drugs. Have your daughter evaluated by a child psychiatrist who has not treated her in the past - this will give you another opinion and may set her on a better course.