Prozac, Not Really Listening

When we learned that Zoloft was not having any helpful effect, it was decided to switch over to Prozac.  Prozac is well documented in the literature in its use on teenagers.  It also has more "headroom' than Zoloft on that larger doses can be given.
The switch involved tapering off of Zoloft while increasing the dosage of Prozac over the course of a couple of weeks.  This also meant that there would be a time where the amount of anti-depressant in my son's bloodstream was minimal.

It was also during this time that we decided to cease giving my son his daily Concerta which he had been taking for his fleeting attention span and somewhat impulsive behavior.  Since Concerta is an amphetamine and my son was already quite "amped up", it was felt that it served no useful purpose and perhaps masked the effectiveness of the anti-depressant.  What I did notice though is that his behavior since the cessation has been more impulsive and his attention more fleeting.

Back to Prozac.  The tapering partially occurred while we were away at a family weekend.  Perhaps owing to the wider audience but perhaps owing to the change of medication, my son put on quite a show.  He was oppositional and had frequent tantrums.  He would tell others that we didn't care about him and wanted him to die.  He would say that we weren't willing to help him.  He did, however, get it together enough to participate in a few activities but, for the most part he was in pretty bad shape.  What's odd, is that when we got back home, he told our neighbors that he had a great time.

As we slowly ramped up the Prozac, we again saw very little if any difference in his behavior.  This led to an attempt to use a class of drugs known as anti-psychotics.  These drugs are used in tandem with anti-depressants because they are thought to have an amplifying effect on them.  Apparently, this amplification is selective and amplifies "the good things" and not "the bad things" of the anti-depressants.