my daughter of 21 has hd we have been experiencing voices and delusions has been hospilized twice now. we go to the state mental health clinic working with pschiarty that has not dealt with hd but she is experincing pschiarty issues.they say she has a neurological disease that her state neurologist needs to be the medicine perscriber and the neurologist says she need pschiatric care due to issues with voices and delusions,caught in the middle does anybody have advise on what medicines work ,we are on geodon and depakote er does not seem to be working any more .advice please .

thanks
Pat

Strange the doctors are put off to prescribe anything. These medications she is on are psychiatric drugs. Depakote has the side effect of hallucinations (hearing voices). That could be the cause. My wife was prescribed by her NEUROLOGIST Risperdal for her hallucinations and dilutions... It worked quite well. It is commonly used in the treatment of HD along with Zyprexa and Seroquel. I don't see why they would prescribe what she is on now and not be willing to try one of these... same type of drugs. Geodon I am not that familiar with but looks to be mainly a mania treatment. I am not sure how commonly it is used in HD. Depakote also has properties for mania... was she having mania type symptoms? Also have they tried any antidepressants? Also... mind stating where you are from...there may be some social services we could direct you to to help you.

My wife did that with Geodon and Depakote also.

Depakote is a very difficult medicine apparently. From time to time they have to monitor it with a blood test.

Isn't it sad you have to come to this place to get advice for a doctor?

plterral

Ive been taking Depakote ER for 2yrs4mos.it is used for many things, in my case it anti seizure, anti tremor, and it is a really good mood stablizer. but i'm also taking

Clonazepam
wellbutrin xl ssri anti depressant
fluoxetine anti anxiety
Geodon just started 2 wks ago. for apathy, loss of interest in life or pleasure. also for other things.

My sister in Indy was prescribed a fairly new Medication for hallucinations and delusions.
It is called ABILIFY

the HD dr. prescribed it. but a psyciatrist can also prescribe it.
One of the reasons they hesitate to do so is that it is outrageously expensive. 30 pills up there were 728.00. and now she is up to 60 a month. fortunately her Ins will cover all but 80.00.

But it really worked for her. She now has complete control of her breaks. she hasn't had one since about 3 weeks after she started them. Don't know if this info will help, but you might talk to either one of her DRS. about this. If they won't discuss any other options with you then i think it is time to find new DRS.
Ones that are caring and compassionate.

Hope something breaks for her soon
Loretta

Go to the neurologist and very respectfully say, "This is a neurological disease and needs to be treated by a neurologist, if you can't do it would you suggest someone who could". When the brain itself is shrinking because of disease,a neurologist needs to be involved. Then say to the psychiatrist, since there are no neuropsychiatrists in the area would you work with the neurologist. Not all psychiatrists are familiar with HD and the interaction of drugs should be monitored more closely.
I think resperdal is very good with dellusions and paranoia. What a difference with my son since he has been on it.

Go to the neurologist and very respectfully say, "This is a neurological disease and needs to be treated by a neurologist, if you can't do it would you suggest someone who could". When the brain itself is shrinking because of disease,a neurologist needs to be involved. Then say to the psychiatrist, since there are no neuropsychiatrists in the area would you work with the neurologist. Not all psychiatrists are familiar with HD and the interaction of drugs should be monitored more closely.
I think resperdal is very good with dellusions and paranoia. What a difference with my son since he has been on it.

Heather was under the care of a Psych Dr- was seen by a Neuro and even he was not familiar with the disease. I insisted on getting her to a place to be tested and I was ignored. The Psych dr put her on Depokote and she responded poorly. She got worse with her moods and delusions. I told him, he hospitalized her and INCREASED the Depokote. She escaped the hospital the second time around and slowly took herself off of it. Even SHE knew it was not good for her to take.

After she escaped from the "committal" area, he yelled down the hallway in front of all my co-workers, "I refuse to be her Dr- she is too psychotic!" UUUhhh, isn't that your job Doc? I don't think too kindly of most psychiatrists.

Depokote, I am sure, works good for many people, but when something isn't working-it isn't working! There are too many other med combinations out there.

When a person keeps doing the same thing that has not worked in the past - and they expect a different result - then THAT'S the definition of insanity!

My husband had only one delusional episode before he was officially diagnosed. He had made up a scenario at work which was very believable. I brought him to the doctor because he was stressed out about work. I did not realize that it was brought on by HD. when we got to the doctors office he had severe chorea and could not speak. I long suspected he had HD which he always denied having. I focused so much on the chorea I had ignored his cognitive symptoms. He was put on risperdal which helped immediately. After awhile he was taken off risperdal it caused him to have a flat affect. He is now on Paxil 40 mg daily and clonazepam 0.5mg three times per day. He has not had a delusional episode since then. His problem is with anxiety his meds have helped with that. He can sometimes become obsessive about something he is concerned about, which can sometimes drive me crazy. I spoke to his neurologist about this and she told us to increase his clonazepam up to 0.25mg or 0.5 mg per day We increased it to 0.25mg which has helped.
I know Haldol is frowned upon by the HD community but our neurologist has told us that sometimes she gives Haldol for severe cases to help them with their symptoms and then she will wean them off Haldol and give other meds that will help.

How does your neurologist suggest that Haldol might helP?

And what drugs does she propose moving to?

What reason does she give for not moving to those drugs immediately, rather than to "pass through" Haldol?

JL,

They suggested the same thing for my wife. The main reason is that Halodol is effective at stopping the behavior and tremors rapidly. That's what they want to do. STOP the behavior.

The psych said explained it as that the other drugs are simply derivitives of Halodol.

Marsha has researched some items that seemed to indicate that there were issues with Halodol, but it is effective.

Another reason is Halodol is a very old, and therefore, cheap drug.

Haldol DID stop my father's psychotic episodes.

It turned him into a zombie.

He had no quality of life to speak of.

He killed himself.