becalmd confusion

[crillmom]

we stopped giving my son becalm'd about 2 weeks ago. He was doing great in school academics wise, but was really emotional and crying whatnot. Anyway we stopped becalm and gave him lexapro and almost immediatly the emotional outbursts stopped. I am not sur if that is due to discontinuing becalmd or adding lexepro. I have noticed though that his adhd med concereta is not as effective as it was when he took it along with the becalmd. I do not want to raise his concerta dosage, so what do you think was in the becalmd that helped with the add? Was it mg/cal or zinc? Would it be safe to add those ingredients back in even though he is taking lexepro and concerta? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I am sooooo confused.

[catatonic]

Crillmom -
It doesn't appear to me like there's enough of the vitamins in becalmd to make much of an impact. It seems far more likely that one or both of the amino acids in becalmd were having an impact on your son.

Phenylalanine is a precursor of norepinephrine. Glutamate is used to produce GABA.

I am definitely NOT a fan of phenylalanine. If brain levels become too high, the results can be depression, schizophrenia, and seizures, to name a few. The July issue of Neuropsychology had this to say about phenylalanine:
"elevated levels of phenylalanine are toxic to the neurological systems that manage executive functions and cognitive tempo"

When phenylalanine was tested as an ADHD treatment, researchers found no benefit:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3296793&dopt=Abstract
and www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3903813&dopt=Abstract

So that leaves the glutamine. A number of studies have found that the brains of children with ADHD lack sufficient glutamine. Other studies have found that some children with ADHD (as well as with conduct disorder and autism) have elevated GABA levels (glutamine builds GABA). So if your child is in the too-little category, supplementing with glutamine will help him. If he's in the too-much group, it will make him worse.

Going with the odds, I'd guess your son was responding to the glutamine. You might experiment by adding glutamine alone back into your son's meds. Give it a week and see if you notice a difference. All the information on glutamine claims that it shows no harmful interaction effects with anything and doesn't have any negative side effects. Its list of positive side effects is fairly long.

There ought to be NO risk to including certain vitamins along with prescription medications. That includes magnesium, multi-vitamins (including those with trace elements), fish oil, and vitamin E.

P.S. - Is the concerta a new thing? The crying etc. may be related to it, if it is new.

[crillmom]

catatonic,
thank you so much for your response, you are a wealth of information. I think I will try adding the glutimine. I am still giving him the fish oils and I will add back in the mag/cal The concerta was added in sept. He was on aderral before this and the stim tend to make him emotional BUT when he was not on anything this summer he was also emotional he is a sensitive kid. I am just wondering if the crying stopped because of the lexepro or the stopping of the becalm'd. I would hate to have him on a med he doesn't need to be on. Do you know the right amount of glutimine for a 9 year old 55 pounder? How about the mag? Thanks again for all your help. I don't know what we would do with out you!!!!!!

[catatonic]

Crillmom -
You could approach the glutamine dose 2 ways. He was taking 150mg per tablet in his becalmd. Calculate his total glutamine intake and duplicate it in a separate supplement. If he was on 3 tablets, you'd want to start around 450mg (which is easy, since 500mg is the most common size of the glutamine supplements).

Or you could base it off what's typically recommended. For adults, that's between 1,000mg and 1,500mg daily. At your child's weight, you'd want to use 1/3 of that amount, or somewhere between 333 and 500mg.

Magnesium is 6 times body weight, or 330mg for your boy. You don't have to get compulsive about cutting pills or anything, just ballpark it. If the dose is too high and he gets loose stools, cut back some. Ideally, divide the magnesium into a morning and an evening dose, but this isn't as important as just getting it into his body anyway you can.

Magnesium pills are BIG. If your son has trouble with BIG, you might want to consider magnesium powder. It's cheap, it can be stirred into something like orange juice (tastes a little sour), but I'm not sure how hard those powders are on the stomach. Do avoid magnesium citrate (more common in chewables) as I know that one is hard on the stomach.

[crillmom]

thanks again catatoni, I just bought him mag/cal/zinc with the right amount . I will try to find the glutimine tommorrow.