A friends daughter has been on Geodon since age 9.Now she is 13.Is Geodon safe? I believe she is misdiagnosed?

Question:

I believe she has a learning disability, but not schizophrenia. I heard Geodon is a last resort med. If its true then what happens when she is 20? Can this med. do much harm? I also heard you cannot diagnose schizophrenia under 15 years of age, is that true?

Answers:
First of all, remind yourself that unless you are a psychiatrist, you are not qualified to diagnose someone else's child. As such, you might want to ask yourself how involved you really want to be in someone else's parenting. You should also ask yourself if your friend will appreciate your advice and insight or not. If so, then you might want to gently bring up the topic of her daughter's illness, and find out if she has had her daughter evaluated more recently. You should also find out if she had a second opinion, and perhaps other drugs she has tried.

That being said, Geodon is a very high powered drug and I am quite surprised and rather shocked to hear that a child was placed on it at the age of 9. Geodon is an atypical antipsychotic. That means that it's technically an antipsychotic, but it's used in different ways for other treatments such as bipolar disorder. It is commonly used for the treatment of schizophrenia.

One of the side effects of Geodon is a heavy, deep sleep that is difficult to wake up from, or sedation. It also has a huge list of other side effects: Accidental injury, cold symptoms, constipation, cough, diarrhea, dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, indigestion, muscle tightness, nausea, rash, stuffy and runny nose, upper respiratory infection, vision problems, weakness

Due to its extensive list of side effects (these are only a few) it IS typically not prescribed until other drugs have been tried and failed.

Other Answers:
You should have her re-evaluated.

SO you need to try another hospital. Or sue the original hospital! I'm not a nurse but I work in a doctor's office and I don't understand why that doctor would give a child a med like that for a learning disability?? Most doctors start out with an ADD/ADHD med like Adderall, Ritalen, Straterra, Dexadrine, Concerta and etc. So if I were you I would definately get a second opinion.

Parents may have reason for concern if a child of 7 years or older often hears voices saying derogatory things about him or her, or voices conversing with one another, talks to himself or herself, stares at scary things—snakes, spiders, shadows—that are not really there, and shows no interest in friendships. Such behaviors could be signs of schizophrenia, a chronic and disabling form of mental illness.2

As far as being safe, it has side effects like all medications.

And if you really don't think that is the problem with her, you should get a second opinion.

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A friends daughter has been on Geodon since age 9.Now she is 13.Is Geodon safe? I believe she is misdiagnosed?

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