The initial period after Haldol resulted in greatly increased engagement. My son spoke more and was more lucid. The doctor realized that Haldol was limiting in the the types of anti-depressants that might be used so she decided to taper off the Haldol and switch him to Perphenazine. His initial reaction to Perphenazine seems to be violent aggression. He was out of control, attacking others and being oppositional. Since this was his initial reaction to Haldol as well we kept going. The dosage was increased and the aggressiveness continued unabated.
After a couple of weeks, we switched back to only Haldol. In this period his school decided he was unmanageable and was building the case for placing him elsewhere. At home things were unsettled as well as he decided that attacking his mother was acceptable behavior. He would not attack me and he would not attack my wife when I was present. This meant that when I was at work I was on edge constantly fearing that my wife would be hurt or driven to the edge.
An emergency trip to the psychiatrists office led to such a high level of aggression towards my wife and the staff that the police were called. The psychiatrist suggested that my son be taken the emergency room. The police were not allowed to take him to the local hospital (about a block away) and could only transport him to the county psychiatric emergency facility.
He stayed there about 8 hours until the attending psychiatrist could see him. When the psychiatrist did see him, he was unhelpful. But he held my son overnight.
The facility was not new and had the look of a bunker from the outside. Visiting my son was allowed in a doubly-locked private area not unlike a prison visiting room. Staff were in attendance at all times. My son was scared and upset.
After an overnight stay, we were duped into taking him home. Duped because apparently if you leave the emergency room, the search for placement is halted. They wanted him out because he was needy, bored and lonely and required a full-time attendant and they were going into the week-end with a skeletal staff.
We found out about this con after we brought him home. We decided to try the weekend at home. The results were basically unchanged. He was sort of manageable but would go after my wife unprovoked. On Monday I had to work late and the evening was eventful as my wife fought off unprovoked aggression from my son. She eventually wrestled him into his room were he remained until I returned.
The evening was peaceful but tense as my wife was upset and nervous around him. Sensing this, he was on his best behavior and was sweet and helpful. This was the usual post-aggression behavior.
In the morning, he got in the bus to go to school and moments after he left a phone call from the driver indicated that my son had undone his seat belt and lunged at the driver. I told the driver to bring my son home and I took my son to the local emergency room.
We stayed there about 14 hours until a placement was found in an adolescent psychiatric unit about 50 miles from our home. The entire 14 hours was trying because my son wanted to go home, wanted to walk around, was bored and finally when the ambulance came to transport him - was afraid that he was never coming back. We were not allowed to accompany him during the transfer.
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