My son and his meds

[deadlytrio_mom]

A year and  half ago my oldest son ( 6 at the time) was diagnosed with WPW Syndrome and SVT. During one of his "episodes" ( I don't know what else to call them) his heart monitor read his heart rate at 278 beats per minute. He was originally put on atenolol and after 11 months we noticed that his behavior had gotten much worse (even violent at times). His Ped. Cardiologist then put him on Sotalol. He takes a smaller dosages in the morning and a higher one at night. He does sot seem to be sleeping as well, his behavior is still bad and I recently learned that in school he stated that he was hearing voices and covered his ears and asked for them to stop. During his forst medication ( the atenolol) I was worried enough that I had him tested for ADD/ADHD. He has also seen a nuerologist and had some genetic testing that seems to have all turned out alright.  Is this normal?  Are the "hearing voices" a side affect or is something else wrong? Does anyone have any idea?  The truth is I miss my son!

[tom_h]

As a former sufferer of a form of AVRT closely related to Wolff-Parkinson-White, I found that the drug therapy I tried, did not alter my personality, and did little to quell my episodes which had inceased to 3-5 per month.  I was on Metoprolol, and tried Sotalol which scared the heck out of me.  When I was first diagnosed as a kid, 54 years ago, I was put on Digitalis and Digoxin.  I don't recall that these drugs helped much either.

Corrective action  I guess could be called "surgery", but doesn't involve opening the chest cavity.  Google "catheter ablation" and you'll have an evening's worth of reading.  The patient often (as I did ) goes home the same day and is ready to go after a day or two of taking it easy.

If I could offer a couple bits of advice to you, it would be to teach your son how to recognize an event.  I was sick with a high fever when mine first occured, and when I told my mother that my chest hurt, she assume that it was due to the illness.  I had a 300bpm heartrate for over 24 hours until it was discovered.  Another thing would teach him to self convert his episodes.  WPW is usually responsive to vagal maneuvers such as Valsalva.  I was taught at 6 years old before I left the hospital, and never had to go to the emergency room for conversion.  This was very helpful throughout my childhood as I recognized an episode, sat down and converted it, and then went back to playing or whatever I was doing.  This really minimized the special treatment that I received from school administrators as well as my peers.  My educators where aware of my situation, but knew that I was educated in how to deal with it, and would come for help if I felt I required it.

Finally, I don't know what effect catheter ablation has on the growing heart of an adolescent.  I can tell you that WPW responds very well to catheter ablation, and has a very high cure rate.  I'm currently 6 months episode free for the first time in 54 years, and loving it.  I hope you can find a resolution to your son's situation.

[deadlytrio_mom]

Thanks like I said his behavior has been on a steady rise since the begining of the first med in Jan. 2010 but this " voices" thing is new to me as of this week.  I know when we had him tested for ADD/ADHD his regular pediatrician said that even if he had it there was nothing that they could put him on for his age and medication. Thanks and I need to make a list of his issues and make some  phone calls it seems.

[ireneo]

I agree with bbxx. If this just started after taking the newer med, I would strongly suspect the medication. The easiest way to figure this out is to stop the medication. Don't do this without the doctor's guidance. Some medications cannot be stopped suddenly. A pharmacist is the best one to talk to about drugs since that is their specialty. And if your doctor tries to put him on medication for mind issues, get a second opinion.

[bbxx]

Sotalol also can rarely cause hallucinations. Body and health canada site is where I found this.The thing is, you have to remember that medications effect everyone differently. If your son never heard voices before and after starting a medication he started experiencing it, then I would first look in to that. Only you know if its related or not. I would suggest you call a pharmacist and tell them what you find (after you look it up) and explain the situation to them. Perhaps they can suggest you talk to your doctor about a different medication. Or, talk to your doctor about what you find. If it were my child, I would suspect the drug (if they never experienced this prior to taking it). You need to be careful if it is a reaction to the medication and you tell some doctors, they will not assume its the medication and may send your child to a shrink and get put on powerful meds to stop the "voices" when its just a reaction to a medication. If your child has other issues, then perhaps its not a side effect. Good luck. :)

[deadlytrio_mom]

The thing is that he has been off the atenolol for 4 months and is now taking Sotalol? When I tried looking up side effects all I ended up doing was confusing myself!

[bbxx]

I read that hallucinations can happen from atenolol, although rare. I will send you some links via pv because we are not suppose to post links here.

[DeltaDawn23]

I have taken Atenolol for 6 years for Afib, no symptoms like that.  I am now on Norpace, and it is an anti-arrythmic like sotalol.  More side effects than the Atenolol, muscle aches, dizziness, gastric distress and I still have irregular rhythms, tho no Afib so far.  I have only been on it 2 weeks.  I did have an episode of dizziness so bad I couldn't walk straight and was disoriented, nauseous and sweating.  I believe I read a side effect can be psycosis (sp?).  Have you read over the side effects?  Nervousness is also a side effect of Norpace.  I don't know if any of this is helpful, but I certainly would get back to the doctor and ask about trying another med.

[deadlytrio_mom]

  There has been some talk of corrective surgery but his doctor wants to wait until he has been on one solid medication for a year at least and would prefer to wait 5 years till the surgery.. he has not said if this is due to my sons age or size. At this point I am so confused!

[ireneo]

I haven't heard of that as a typical side effect of anti-arrhythmic medications. But meds in children are so different than in adults. It sounds serious enough to discuss this again with his cardiologist. Has the doctor mentioned trying an ablation to correct this or at least get some improvement so he won't have to take medication? I hope you get answers soon. This just isn't right for a little child to live like this.