Laura, it concerns me to hear you say that your 8yo daughter is stressed by school. It seems to me school should be fun at that age, though my daughter did get stressed with homework sometimes. I believe I would first address that issue, perhaps talk with the guidance counselor, or try to observe what is going on at school. I don’t think depression from hormones would be normal at this age, either, though a hormonal imbalance can definately cause it. My daughter had a lot of sadness the first couple of years after starting her period; after she started on Yasmin to regulate her hormones, that has greatly improved. I can always tell when she’s on the sugar pills, though. I do think this could be related to your daughter’s medications; either too much or too little steroids are associated with depression, lots of info on this on the web. So perhaps she needs her levels checked again to see what’s happening. Here’s a summary of a study on carriers from the Cares website as an example:

General Observations and Conclusions

In the subjects studied, carriers of 21-OH deficiency had significantly lower 24-hour urinary free cortisol levels and had significantly higher ACTH and 17-hydroxyprogesterone response after CRH stimulation. These findings suggest that in carriers, the hypothalamus is mildly compensating for the low levels of cortisol by producing more CRH and ACTH. Such a finding is of interest as previous studies have shown that an overactive hypothalamus, excessive secretion of CRH, and low cortisol production have behavioral effects. Oversecretion of CRH has been documented in states of anxiety and depression. Chronic low cortisol production has been associated with several disorders, ranging from depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia (persistent pain), and the postpartum period. Therefore our findings suggest that carriers of 21-OH deficiency may be genetically vulnerable or predisposed to the development of emotional or anxiety disorders upon exposure to adverse environmental factors.

This would be in relation to too little cortisol, but in your daughter’s case, if she just had her meds increased, perhaps she’s now getting too much. Any other signs of oversuppression? I would definately investigate further. BTW, how are her hives?