My 16 year old daughter has been on Celexa for over a year now and her doctor is trying to get her off her Klonopin so in doing that, he raised her dosage of Celexa from 20 to 40 mg. a day. Within 4-5 days of upping the dosage, she began having very bad suicidal dreams and thoughts that spilled over to her daytime as well. She won't go to school because she is so down and the thoughts keep creeping in her head. She's scared to death and thinks she's a "freak". She doesn't want to die but she feels the dreams are going to take over and win. Has anyone experienced this before? Her doctor took her back down to her 20 mg dose but she is still having the thoughts until the extra dosage is out of her system. Any help??
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Q: My 16 year old daughter has been on Celexa for 1 year now.
Answers (1)
11/11/09 4:33pm
Your daughter is in the age group that are warned about possible suicidal ideation or worsening depression with the use of certain antidepressants. You've probably done all you can right now by talking with her doctor. One other thing you could maybe do is work out a contract with her that before she might do anything harmful to herself, she must call you or tell you, or call her doctor. If there's a real possibility that she could hurt herself, you could always take her to the emergency room of a hospital.
I know it's frightening when your child is not doing well and then actually getting worse on the medication, but if you can get her to promise to call someone if she's in real danger, it may help her feel safer and ease some of your worry. I hope she gets past this very soon and I'm sorry this happened.
11/11/09 4:55pm
Mary, you're very welcome. I meant to ask, does your daughter have a therapist? That would be another safety net.
11/11/09 5:01pm
She does have a psychiatrist but she isn't really helping very much at this time. Her psychiatrist and psychologist are in the same office and "partners". We are planning to move her to a different place because we feel as if this place is like a revolving-door. It's difficult to explain but we just don't feel like she's getting "good" therapy. She was doing so well for so long that she didn't really see the therapist only to "check in" and get her meds from the doctor. The last time she went in for a routine session she was perfectly fine when she went in, then came out crying and almost hysterical because this therapist brings all kinds of issues to the surface and ends up making her very emotional. Not sure that's what a therapist is suppose to be doing especially with a teenager. So we're going to move her to another place as soon as we get her through this situation. Thank you again for your help!
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Judy....thank you so much for responding so quickly. It's much appreciated! She went through similar suicidal ideations last year that did end up putting her into PHP (Partial Hospitalization) and then the actualy in-patient hospital shortly after that. This situation is reminding me very much of that hell she went through but alot of it is different as well. She is very aware this time that this is all the medication's doing and that she doesn't really WANT to harm or kill herself.....the thoughts just push through to her surface and make her constantly think about it. I do like the contract idea and will probably suggest that to her tonight. She is very close to both of us (my husband) and talks to us about everything so I hope she would come to us if she felt the urge or feeling of hurting herself. Thank you so much for the response. =]