Posted by Mama Bear on March 29, 2003, at 23:23:54
I am a mother of a 5 year old little girl. She was diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder or ODD for short at the age of three years and 10 months. She was put on a neuroleptic called Respirdal. She was on this drug for 17 months and at the end she was on 3mg of this stuff per day. She was given a new diagnoses in January of this year. We were told that she was obsessive compulsive and were told to wean her off respirdal. She did not have any brain damage that we knew of before the use of this nueroleptic. She was even seen by a child neurologist and he said the same thing. It was only when we weaned her off the respirdal that we realized that she had some serious problems from this drug. She has all the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia and we have confronted her pediatrician about it. He basically denies that Respirdal could cause Tardive Dyskinesia. I have read and found out diferently. Has anyone out there ever heard of Dr. Peter Breggin. This guy has successfully testified in a court of law as a medical expert on the field of permanent brain damage/tardive dyskinesia and the associated use of neuroleptics such like respirdal and other psychiatric medications. His recored is actually perfect in court. There have been several other cases that he has aggreed to testify at and the cases had been settled out of court. His web site is www.breggin.com You should check it out if you or someone you know is taking or has taken neuroleptics. This has been an extremely hard week for us as a family. Does anyone out there have some information about this TD and can you tell me if there is any sort of hope besides putting her back on the brain damaging drug. You see these neuroleptics mask what they are doing to your brain while you continue to take them. It is only once you come off of the offending drug that you can tell what damage it has caused the brain. I have read the only thing that can help TD is to go back on the offending drug to control the symptoms from the brain damage that it caused. This sounds ridiculous to me and is not even an option for my 5 yr old daughter. I am considering a medical malpractice suit against the doctors that failed to tell me or her father what the possible side effects that long term use of neuroleptics have on the brain. Her pediatrician tried to tell me that 17 months on this drug is not considered long term use. This Dr. Breggin actually testified at a court case involving a women that was only on respirdal for 14 months and suffered Tardive Dyskinesia from using respirdal. He said that her doctors did not provide her with the proper standard of care. My daughter did not receive proper standard of care either. I am desperate for any information that you can provide me with on this very subject. I look forward to hearing from anyone who may help me so I can in turn help my 5 year old that has been permanently damaged from this neuroleptic. This is also a warning to anyone who is considering taking these types of drugs. Do your research while you can before you start taking these drugs. It is better to find out before the damage happens. From what I can tell once the damage has been done there is no cure and no quick fix solution. This can and is a very debilitating syndrome that is mainly caused by the use of neuroleptics. Tammy tamrobinson@sympatico.ca
poster:Mama Bear
thread:214228
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030329/msgs/214228.html