adverse drug reaction permanent?

[dreamersmom]

My 9 year-old daughter exhibited signs of stress this fall and when her morning stomach aches became a problem, she was given Reglan (a low dose before bedtime).  It cured the stomach aches but over time (unbeknownst to us) made her anxiety worse (OCD) and after 3weeks she became psychotic.  We immediately stopped Reglan, the psychosis vanished but the anxiety took 2 months to resolve.  Now (on NO medication) she is doing great but her psychiatrist (who had never heard of Reglan, BTW) thinks that the Reglan just made an "underlying" or "hidden" OCD condition worse.  Altho my daughter tends to become anxious under stress and has an obsessive personality (she's driven over activities she likes or worries more than others over issues that may bring harm to loved ones, like a cousin who won't stop smoking; and she's fastidious), prior to the Reglan, we saw no need for intervention.  Her therapist says she is not "disordered", and that her temperament just "guided" the route the drug reaction took. The mfr of Reglan admits it often causes pschiatric problems for varioius people (predisposed or not). My gut feeling is that she is fine.  Should I worry like this p-doc says to? Did Reglan permanently bring a problem to the surface?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Try to focus on the bottom line, so to speak. As long as your daughter is doing well, she does not require intervention: If it's not broken, don't fix it. It may well be that the Reglan potentiated her susceptibility to anxiety, but it's now a moot point. Many people have symptoms of anxiety and they do quite fine. The key issue is whether the anxiety interferes with her mastery over the various demands of a nine-year-old.