Q:  Too Much Medication for This Child?

i know an 8 year old boy who weights 80 pounds at most he is taking lithabid 300 mg 2 times a day, he is also taking tagratoll 200 mg 4 times a day along with seraquel 25 mg once a day one to two tablets for his manic depression along with these meds he is taking concerta 54mg once a day and methylphenidate 10mg 1-1 1/2 pills once a day i was wondering if a child this size really needs to take this much medication becuase he walkes around like he has no life. please reply


Hello Melissa -- 
Well, the short answer is there's no way you or I can tell whether he'd have more of a life with less medication.  There's a pretty good chance, especially if he has a good doc', that he'd be worse -- because he probably was, until each of those medications was added in turn.  

However, it's possible that the approach was not that systematic and he could use a careful trial of tapering off one of those.  That's up to his family and the doctor to decide on, of course.  

Those doses might sound big but the lithium can be "tuned" to a pretty precise blood level, which is what really matters, not the dose itself (this is somewhat true also for Tegretol).  That's a very low dose of Seroquel.  It's pretty common for me to use multiple medications to try to avoid the side effects that might occur with higher doses of a single one. 

Hmm, that might sound a little defensive, I suppose.  It's a fair question, mind you.  

Dr. Phelps

Published February, 2003