ODD, BiPolar, Aspergers??

[unified13]

Our 11 yr. old son has had many diagnoses.  High functioning autism, bi polar, odd, adhd, aspergers.  he is on 5mg abilify and 40 mg stratera.  We have had him on numerous meds, but abilify really has helped him.  Stratera was just introduced in the last couple months, but we don't see much change.  We home schooled him this last year due to him being agressive at school.  He is now back at public school and seems to try so hard to keep in control, but when he gets home it's like a release and the defiancy comes out and always ends up getting sent to his room almost nightly and then is very apologetic but 10 minutes later back to being defiant and disrespectful.  We know he tries very hard to use coping skills, but once he gets to a certain level of his anger, he doesn't know how to rationalize his thoughts whatsoever and takes things to the extreme, but always comes down off of it and is very apologetic.  The last couple months have been very stressful on us and we are trying to keep our composure, but it seems to be getting more and more difficult to deal with.  I wish we knew exactly what his diagnosis is so we could treat it correctly.  Any ideas??    

[tejodouro]

If you introduced Stratera two months ago and his behavior got even worse two months ago, maybe you should try to eliminate Stratera.  Maybe his behavior will be a little better.  Stratera is not for every kid and either works or not.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

It does sound like some diagnostic clarity would be useful, and it would be prudent to arrange a second opinion consult for this purpose. In addition to whatever pharmacological treatment is ultimately decided upon, it will be very important to decide on a systematic plan for behavior management. It might be useful in this regard to bring in a behavioral specialist. Be sure not to put all your eggs in the medication basket, so to sepak. Medication can be a very important tool to stabilize your son's mood and contain his anger, but it won't solve all the problems.