[WindstarrX]

Hi,

I have an 8 yr. old nephew that was diagnosed with ADHD a couple years ago. I'm pretty worried about his health and well-being due to the amount of meds he is currently taking. He weighs about 50 lbs. and is currently on 20mg of Adderall (10 mg in the morning, and 10mg in the afternoon) and 30mg of Remeron (before bedtime) daily. I have been skeptical of his meds ever since my sister swapped doctors because his last psychiatrist refused to up his dosage due to health risks, but within the past few weeks I have become seriously concerned.

My nephew has come overseas with my husband and I for his school break, and I took him off the Adderall after only the first couple days. I couldn't stand giving him those little blue pills knowing that about 20 min later I would basically have a drooling, unresponsive zombie sitting on my couch. I continued to give him his night meds because my sister was specifically insistant that he needs it to help his teeth grinding problem. He has been off the Adderall now for 2 weeks, and so far I don't have a problem with behavior at all. He does his homework daily without a hitch and behaves in public with no problems. He has even started making friends over here, while his only 'friend' back in the US is a 13 yr old at his daycare that basically just beats him up for Yu-Gi-Oh cards (my husband's family lives over in Europe, so it's basically just like another home for the summer).

Anyway, I took him to a psychiatrist here last Tuesday, and after just glancing at his meds the doc said that 1) he was pretty highly medicated for his age, 2) they were both habitforming and had pretty bad side effects when used in large doses over a long period of time and 3) his night time medicine, while sometimes used for sleep help, is very dangerous in children when not monitored closely, and considering he only goes to the doctor once every 3 months for 15 min, he thinks it is the wrong medicine completely, especially for something as petty as grinding his teeth.

Any thoughts on this? I'm just totally lost on what to do. My sister basically just wants him to be quiet and leave her and her husband alone, so she doesn't seem to care how zombielike he is, or if he just sits in front of the tv 15 hours a day. The Austrian psychiatrist suggested an intervention, which we are highly considering. I just can't stand the idea of him going back home and becoming a zombie for the rest of his childhood, and I don't like the idea of his doses being high to the point of health risks. [V]