This came in through the comments today, and I thought I'd share it. While my kids never had issues with mood swings related to their corticosteroids, over the years I've had many comments about kids who have.
If you notice your child is have severe mood swings, talking about suicide or doing anything especially weird while on inhaled steroids, PLEASE CALL YOUR DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY. Trust your gut: If you feel like something's wrong with your kid,
something is probably wrong with your kid!
Anyway, to that point, here's the comment I wanted to share:
My son was recently put on Pulmicort twice daily to help control his asthma. A day or so after he started the Pulmicort, his mood started changing. He was suddenly obsessed with questions about dying, crying everyday, and kept talking about "thoughts" he could not get out of his head. He kept saying, "My brain keeps telling me to kill myself, but I would never do that." He insisted that the thoughts won't go away. The thoughts progressed into visions of other people dying and questioning beliefs in God. We realized all this began when he started taking Pulmicort so we decided to take him to the Dr. that prescribed it. He told us to take him off it immediately and that we should see a difference in 2-5 days. Well today is day 3 and I have my happy, loving, and kind son back. I normally don't write on blogs, but felt this is so important to let others know who may be experiencing the same thing with their child. It was helpful to me to see others going through the same thing and to know that it can get better once the Pulmicort is stopped.
Thanks so much for sharing this. It's obviously very personal, but I think a lot of other parents benefit from this level of honesty.
Let me know if your doctor puts your son on a different medication and how that goes.
