Celexa and Anxiety in Children

[the_lissa]

Can anyone share their experiences with Celexa to treat anxiety in children?

PM me if you don't want to share publicly.

Thanks/

[the_lissa]

bump

[~mama jewel~]

bumping this thread for you, too, as well as giving a short response. I've never heard of Celexa, so I would be curious if anyone can give input.

My 3 yo son has severe anxiety (I've posted before about it). Anyway, we see a naturopath & so far, have been really pleased with a supplement (amino acid) for neurotransmitter called, Kavinace. It has worked pretty instantaneously (within 15 min) & helps. We're also working with a behaviorist (& OT) for coping techniques.

[the_lissa]

Thanks for the reply.

Could you tel me what OT stands for?

[~mama jewel~]

Occupational Therapist

[dairy2dogs]

We've never used Celexa but tried prozac for our daughters anxiety. It didn't help her. We are now using a Traditional Chinese Medicine formula our practitioner developed for her. Its helped her a lot.

[MommyPam]

We used Celexa for ds for about 6 months. It seemed to help, and I didn't pick up on any adverse effects. As time went on, he was diagnosed with bipolar, and we discontinued Celexa and moved on to other drug therapy that was much more effective for him. I initiated very in depth medical investigation and tried many other interventions before we turned to medication.

[cocopop]

My daughter was on it a year ago, against my better judgement. But then again, I didn't agree with her anxiety disorder diagnosis (which has since been removed)

Anyway, she was also on Risperdal and 6 weeks into the celexa the risperdal quit working and she ended up hospitalized in the psychiatric ward. The doctor insisted it had nothing to do with the celexa, I disagree.

That was my only experience,

Kim

[the_lissa]

What is risperdal for? Was it a drug interaction? What happened that your daughter was hospitalized? How old is your daughter?

[cocopop]

Originally Posted by the_lissa

What is risperdal for? Was it a drug interaction? What happened that your daughter was hospitalized? How old is your daughter?

Risperdal is an anti-psychotic drug. It is often used in young kids for violent behavior. My daughter is 8. She was hospitalized because she became aggressive and violent and couldn't be calmed in any other way. She was up to 4mg of risperdal , a large dose for even an adult and it wasn't touching her. A normal kid on that would have been knocked cold. I do not know if it was a drug interaction and probably never will because this behavior is something we have struggled with for years, whether she was on Celexa or not.

[USAmma]

I thought there was a black box warning for use in children because of increased suicide rates . . . I'm on that med as an adult, but have no experience with it for children. I hope you are able to get help for your kids who need meds. Depression is such a difficult condition.

[Labbemama]

I know it can be used for both depressive and anxiety symptoms. Currently taking it myself as well as my older two kids. We still have plenty of anxiety though but I'm sure I'd be stark raving mad by now without it as the stressors persist in our lives and I'm trying to purge our lives of one abusive stalking stbx. It does seem to help but it takes about 4-8 weeks to show a benefit. We all have PTSD.

[SunshineJ]

I don't know about in children, but I was put on it once. The main thing I noticed is that it made me incredibly queasy all the time, but I wasn't on it long enough to outlast that for any other effects to kick in.

[Javrooten]

Hi, I have an eleven year old son that has been on Celexa 10 mg for about a year now. We had tried many different drug, cocktails to treat his ADD and severe anxiety for over 2-3 yrs. there were some slight improvements with some things, but though I heard it mentioned earlier in this post, the combination of Risperidone, and Celexa have seemed to do the trick! He is calm enough to sleep in his own room, be in a room alone for that matter! But I have run out of the med, and he falls right back into the same old nervous habits, wanting proximity to people, saying he feels scared and he doesn't know why! Well, fortunately I know what has made the difference, and I hope others can find similar results!