Abilify prescribed for child, age 10

[brokenheart]

The doctor prescribed our ten year daughter Abilify as a mood stabalizer. It is 2mg, and she is supposed to take it at 4 pm everyday. We just got it today. It costs $433.91 for one month supply!! I thought her Adderall was expensive! That is rediculous! I read on the inserts that came with it that there are tons of possible negative side effects. I am not sure if I want to give it to her.


She is usually not bad in the evenings, just hyper. It's mainly the mornings that she gets in trouble. She is sometimes stormy: stomping, yelling, defiant. She doesn't stop until I make her. I can't reason with her. I can't calm her down. I usually have to paddle her, one or two swats. (for all of you non-spanking folks, don't worry, it's just a little toy rubber ball paddle.) Then she will have a temper fit. When that is over, she is an angel, like her bad self left and her good self came home.

She has been on Adderall since she was about 6 for ADHD. She started with 10 mg, and is now up to 20 mg in the morning and 10 mg at noon.

According to her counselor, she shows signs of early onset bipolar.

She eats well and is healthy otherwise, except that she started her mestrual cycle during the summer (yes, at age 10--crazy, huh?), which undoubtably accounts for the mood swings.

I just don't know what to do about giving her Abilify.

Any ideas?

[Latte]

Get a second opinion. Bi-polar is hard to diagnose in children, especially ones that young.

I post over at another board where there are many parents dealing with children who have special needs. I'll PM you the site.

Warning! The site discourages spanking.

[brokenheart]

Thanks Latte. I'll remember the headsup on the spanking issue. It's just all that seems to bring her out of it. I know it doesn't hurt her, so I'm not sure why it works, but it does.

Besides we are from the south, and here even the schools still spank, as a last resort in most cases.

[Latte]

I'm not passing judgement. I think that the more tools that we get as parents the less we need to resort to physical forms of punishment. When we know better we do better.

I hope you got my PM.

[least]

I second the suggestion of getting a second opinion. That seems a big step and would be reassuring to have another doctor's assessment.

I hope it works out for the best.

[liveweyerd]

Talk it over with her Dr and know that there are programs for assistance (I get most of mine free) with the financial cost of drugs.

[nandm]

I would suggest discussing other options with your doctor since there are many less expensive medications out for bipolar. Ones that are not as new as abilify, having been around longer the side effects might be better known. I personally am hesitant about new medications until they have been on the market a while. Although drug companies are supposed to do quite a bit of research I believe that the true effects can not be known until people have been on the med for a couple of years. I say this because of the meds that have been pulled off the market after enough people had serious problems from them after they had been out a couple of years. Also since anti depressants can have serious side effects for young children I have to wonder what a medication like a mood stabilizer could potentially do to a child. Please get a second opinion.