Prozac increasing impulsivity?

[Chipcookiemom]

My 8 year old son started prozac two months ago. Tried stimulants and guanfacine for awhile that made his anxiety waaaay worse. On prozac, we saw an almost immediate improvement in irritability, rage and major anxiety that was making life unmanageable for everyone. He's soool much happier. Now that his mood has improved, he's that stereotypical adhd kid who is impulsive, getting in trouble at school (last year he was masking/anxious and didn't get in trouble at all, so school is confused) trying to steal from his friends maybe thats just him) and class clown. We're thrilled after two miserable years that he's not miserable and now we are just dealing with obnoxious behavior. But also he can't just start getting in trouble at school because that also doesn't work for functioning well.Did others see unmasking/more impulsive behaviors on prozac or other ssris?

Did anyone find success on stimulants after getting the anxiety under control with an anti anxiety med and trying stimulants again?

Did others find success with other ssris/anxiety meds that also did not result in more impulsivity? Were open to something other than prozac

Thanks

[Speckled_frog]

Oh this sounds sooo much like my son. He’s 7 now, but not too far off 8.

I’m happy to send you a more detailed reply about what our medication journey has been like, but in short

Yes - taking an SSRI caused a massive increase in impulsivity. And psychiatrist says - this is just his baseline without all the anxiety (so the unmasking you speak of). So a much happier child, with significant decrease in the rage you mention. And his ability to participate in his community has improved.

Yes - we have great success on an SSRI & stimulant, but that is just for the 8 hours the stimulant is working. Outside of that, we have an extremely impulsive and distractible boy. So I am extremely grateful for what the medication has helped with, but our mornings and evenings are still intense.

[oldwiseone]

Hi! My daughter is a lot older (16) but we just started her medication journey and did see the same thing with Prozac. My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD at 6 years old but did increasingly better in school through middle school. Apparently, her brain used anxiety as the main coping strategy for her ADHD symptoms. Once she began high school, her anxiety began affecting her functioning and she also developed depression. She started Prozac and was her happy, curious self again. However, I also had glimpses of “my 6 year old little girl” with more impulsivity, distractibility and defiance while she was on Prozac and wondered if Prozac makes ADHD worse. She switched to Wellbutrin now (because she is driving!) and is doing better with ADHD symptoms.

[adoptivemom]

My son (almost 8) is also on Prozac. It helped a lot in the beginning too but now he seems to struggle more with the typical ADHD symptoms you are experiencing. Anger recently has been on the uptick. We tried stimulants but they did not help and the rebound was awful!! We have a RX for Strattera but haven't given it to him. The stimulants were rough so we took a break to get him happy and stable again. I filled the Rx but haven't given it to him yet. Maybe next week. We had the teacher resign and new one start today and a lot of travel and chaos the past few weeks. I have been waiting for a quieter normal time to try it out.

Hope that helps!!

[Mamamichl]

My experience with Prozac was that it gave me suicidal ideation and didnt help my impulsivity. I am so glad you are having success with it. Instead of a stimulant, which can raise anxiety, have you tried the non stimulant route for adhd? I tried 4 stimulants and no success with my anxiety, but When I went to atomoxatine (stratera?), I am having a lot more success (while still taking my anxiety meds).

Stimulants seem to help me with adhd in that it speeds up my brain so I can think the about my decision making things and decide which action to take. This also made me have a lot more thoughts, which raised my anxiety. With the nonstimulant, I almost feel like my brain is slowed down so that I dont have as many thoughts troubling me. I can also identify my emotions better without them being as extreme. I can keep my counseling/therapy in the front of my thoughts better and take those necessary actions, but dont fret on the poor actions as much, and make less of them as well, so I dont perseverate on them in general.

As for anxiety meds, I did well with Citalopram for a while, not well with Prozac, then went to trintellix. Trintellix was great for me, but I became dependent on it and coming off when insurance wouldnt cover it was a horrible time. I am now on Ecitalopram (sister to Citalopram), and I am doing well.