10 year old son Zyprexa & Inderal LA

[katie940]

Hello everyone!! I am completely new to this site but have been doing alot of reasearch over the past 4 months or so on my son's stuttering and thought I would share my experience and hopefully I can get some feedback, tips along the way!

My son is 10 years and has stuttered since the age of 3. We live in an area in Canada where the resources are lacking with therapy, therapists etc but I continue to do what I can for my son. His stuttering currently is at a point where it is considered to be severe. He has endured some pretty serious self esteem issues, social issues at school etc. We recently had an assessment with the device called SpeechEasy and unfortunately my son did not benefit from it as I had hoped :-(
I had decided over the past few months that I was going to give medication a try and so today is the first day of the trial and it is as follows:

We visited the doctor today and my doctor is on board with helping me aid my son in getting him more fluent. I suggested to him Zyprexa and Inderal LA (Proponolol) which we started tonight. He is on 2.5 mg of Zyprexa (minimal dosage) and 80 mg of Inderal LA. I am not worried about the Inderal LA but have some concerns with Zyprexa but to my knowledge and research recently I feel this is the best combination. I will keep you all posted as to the outcome. Please feel free to comment with your experiences, etc as it will help me make a more informed decision along the way. Talk to you soon!

[Vermillion]

I'd recommend you take him off those meds immediately..

Someone as young as 10 shouldn't be taking any medications (especially a hardcore one like zyprexa)..I don't even think their brains have grown fully yet..

Try to find a good speech therapist or therapy program (IStar, in Alberta), your son still has hope.

[jak]

I have to agree ,I would not give these drugs to a kid ,Most doctors if you ask will give them to you on request but that does not mean they are safe ,These drugs have alot of side effects known and unknown for long term use. And once on these drugs they are very hard to get off of them,I think ther is even a warning about giving them to teens

[jak]

Zyprexa® can compromise the body's ability to metabolize sugar, or "glucose." Glucose is what your cells use to get the energy they need to survive. In order to break down glucose into a form the body can use, the body needs insulin - which is produced by the pancreas. Therefore, anything that causes damage to the pancreas can result in very serious illness - even death. Source:
rights4.com

[jak]

The following adverse events were observed and have been reported in patients using propranolol.

Cardiovascular: Bradycardia; congestive heart failure; intensification of AV block; hypotension; paresthesia of hands; thrombocytopenic purpura; arterial insufficiency, usually of the Raynaud type.

Central Nervous System: Light-headedness; mental depression manifested by insomnia, lassitude, weakness, fatigue; catatonia; visual disturbances; hallucinations; vivid dreams; an acute reversible syndrome characterized by disorientation for time and place, short-term memory loss, emotional lability, slightly clouded sensorium, and decreased performance on neuropsychometrics. For immediate release formulations, fatigue, lethargy, and vivid dreams appear dose related.

Gastrointestinal: Nausea, vomiting, epigastric distress, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, constipation, mesenteric arterial thrombosis, ischemic colitis.

Allergic: Hypersensitivity reactions, including anaphylactic/anaphylactoid reactions; pharyngitis and agranulocytosis; erythematous rash; fever combined with aching and sore throat; laryngospasm; respiratory distress.

Respiratory: Bronchospasm.

Hematologic: Agranulocytosis, nonthrombocytopenic purpura, and thrombocytopenic

[Loriner925]

All I read are negative feedbacks, lets start writing positive feedbacks for this person helping her son. Let us know how the treatment goes, I also am on Zyprexa 2.5mg but I still haven't recieved my Inderal.

[ratboy]

As long as you are very responsible when watching what he eats and his reactions to the drugs I don't see a problem. I have seldom heard of people using Zyprexa and Inderal at the same time, but I have heard good reviews on both in helping lessen the severity of stuttering.

At 10 years of age I was in fifth grade... At that time my homeroom teacher arranged a meeting with me to repeat to me the now famous story of What'shisname (the Greek who put stones in his mouth to stop stuttering). As most people on the forum, I was made fun of. Luckily I was strong and confident, but that's not everybody's case, and that can be almost as damaging as choking to death on small rocks and a lot worse than the possibility of gaining a few pounds on some pills.

[andrewg818]

Anti-stuttering drugs are dangerous, man-made, based on the assumption that "we don't know why anyone stutters, but think this might help based on loose studies of test subjects"--and have no real history of helping anyone to become lastingly, comfortably fluent.
Better suggestions for your son would be:

*Remove soda/caffeine completely from his diet
*limit/eliminated refined sugar
*give vitamin c, magnesium, and b-1 w/ each meal
*promote lower stress

<<these will have similar lowgrade success but w/out the risk and side effects.

[Vermillion]

Originally Posted by andrewg818

Anti-stuttering drugs are dangerous, man-made, based on the assumption that "we don't know why anyone stutters, but think this might help based on loose studies of test subjects"--and have no real history of helping anyone to become lastingly, comfortably fluent.
Better suggestions for your son would be:

*Remove soda/caffeine completely from his diet
*limit/eliminated refined sugar
*give vitamin c, magnesium, and b-1 w/ each meal
*promote lower stress

<<these will have similar lowgrade success but w/out the risk and side effects.

Actually, there have been NO studies on the effect of caffeine, limited refined sugar, vitamin c, magnesium, or b-1 on stuttering. Howveer, there have been studies on the use of zyprexa and stuttering showing that it can greatly reduce stuttering.

[Adrian]

Originally Posted by Vermillion

Actually, there have been NO studies on the effect of caffeine, limited refined sugar, vitamin c, magnesium, or b-1 on stuttering. Howveer, there have been studies on the use of zyprexa and stuttering showing that it can greatly reduce stuttering.

This a good point. Safety concerns aside, Zyprexa is the only man made or natural compound that has been proven to reduce stuttering.

The idea that limited caffeine, limited refined sugar, vitamin c, magnesium, or b-1 reduce stuttering is unsupported by evidence. Martin Schwartz, who many believe is a charlatan, has been throwing this idea around for several decades. I was once a client of Schwartz's and tried these changes in my life. They had no effect on my speech.

[andrewg818]

There have been THOUSANDS of studies on the effects of caffeine elimination and magnesium supplementation [independent of each other] on the human body for reducing tension, stress, and various other issues. Additionally, there have been many studies citing stuttering as stress/tension related.
Moreover, there have been no studies of which I am aware that show any known basis for anti-stuttering drugs to reduce stuttering--none that attempt to explain the causal factors of stuttering, the logic behind the drug, or why it works only partially/sporadically/across only certain individuals [whereas caffeine has an adverse affect on all humans without exception]

[andrewg818]

here are some articles re: the effects of caffeine on stuttering:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Stuttering...ink&id=1203483

http://poznaisebya.com/newsengall/sp...38-04-571.html

http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/rea/abs...195628!8091!-1

http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/In...folkmyths.html [mentions in agreeance w/ Mather's old book which, in part, discusses some of the REASONS why caffeine is known to excaberate stuttering

Research STUDIES on the effects of even small amounts of caffeine on humans are everywhere..They number in the thousands.

re: magnesium -- there is an interesting thread on the efficacy of magnesium for stutterers--from 2005 in this forum at:
http://www.stutteringforum.com/forum...read.php?t=320

Also, there are hundreds--if not thousands of studies on the effects of magnesium on tension, stress, etc;

Now, as indicated, I do not recommend these for dramtic stuttering reduction [although in the thread on this BOARD--many people seem to have had success] .. Instead, I recommend them in PLACE of prescribed drugs--which have no real known basis, are experimental.. were designed for OTHER purposes [i.e. pagloclone which was designed for ANXIETY, has dramatic side effects, and is now also being proposed to stop premature ejaculation !]... because the effect of these NUTRITIONAL changes would be about the SAME as most "anti-stuttering" drugs.. SOME relief.. but w/out the side effects..and, in any event, better health for the person who takes them. Magnesium [and calcium], by the way, were key ingredients in a 2005 anti-stuttering drug's u.s. patent application
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/68...scription.html

[Adrian]

Originally Posted by andrewg818

here are some articles re: the effects of caffeine on stuttering:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Stuttering...ink&id=1203483

http://poznaisebya.com/newsengall/sp...38-04-571.html

http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/rea/abs...195628!8091!-1

http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/In...folkmyths.html [mentions in agreeance w/ Mather's old book which, in part, discusses some of the REASONS why caffeine is known to excaberate stuttering

Research STUDIES on the effects of even small amounts of caffeine on humans are everywhere..They number in the thousands.

re: magnesium -- there is an interesting thread on the efficacy of magnesium for stutterers--from 2005 in this forum at:
http://www.stutteringforum.com/forum...read.php?t=320

Also, there are hundreds--if not thousands of studies on the effects of magnesium on tension, stress, etc;

Now, as indicated, I do not recommend these for dramtic stuttering reduction [although in the thread on this BOARD--many people seem to have had success] .. Instead, I recommend them in PLACE of prescribed drugs--which have no real known basis, are experimental.. were designed for OTHER purposes [i.e. pagloclone which was designed for ANXIETY, has dramatic side effects, and is now also being proposed to stop premature ejaculation !]... because the effect of these NUTRITIONAL changes would be about the SAME as most "anti-stuttering" drugs.. SOME relief.. but w/out the side effects..and, in any event, better health for the person who takes them. Magnesium [and calcium], by the way, were key ingredients in a 2005 anti-stuttering drug's u.s. patent application
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/68...scription.html

These articles are not evidence, they are simply conjecture by the authors that caffiene reduces stuttering. Gerald McGuire M.D. at UC-Irvine has done double-blind, placebo-controlled studies to show Zyprexa reduces stuttering. Andrew's suggestions may or may not work, but they are a shot in the dark.

[Vermillion]

All the links Andrew posted are ZERO proof that caffeine or any of those supplements have an effect on stuttering. Like Adrian said, none of those articles referenced to studies that underwent double blind placebo-controlled studies that have gone through peer review for a scientific journal. In those articles, the author is just stating things like they are facts with no backup: "taking calcium, magnesium and vitamin B complex helps many people", "The removal of caffeine from diet has known to completely eliminate the stuttering problem in some children"

[Vermillion]

Originally Posted by andrewg818

Magnesium [and calcium], by the way, were key ingredients in a 2005 anti-stuttering drug's u.s. patent application
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/68...scription.html

Never in that article does it say Magnesium and Calcium are key ingredients in the invention.
Most of the discussion on magnesium and calcium were in regards to preparing the "invention" for oral administration, particularly in the form of tablets or capsules.
"The stuttering alleviating substance of the instant invention will ordinarily be formulated with one or more pharmaceutically acceptable ingredients in accordance with known and acceptable practice."
"Formulations for oral use can be provided as hard gelatin capsules wherein the stuttering alleviating
substance is mixed with an inert solid diluent such as calcium carbonate, phosphate, or kaolin"

I don't get why you say calcium or magnesium was a "key ingredient", since it was only used to create the tablet or capsule so that the ACTUAL stuttering-alleviating substance can be delivered to the person.