Hi Katrina,
In Pharmaceutical catalogues, 'mental' and 'neurological' adverse effects are listed for both, Dexamethasone and Prednisone. Behavioural disturbances are listed for Dexamethasone. However, in the maintenance doses (lower doser), usually used by those with CAH, these are not overtly severe. But you mention that your daughter is on both these meds. Have you noticed a worsening of her behaviour, only since adding the extra medication to her regime? Another explanation may be that because her levels have been out of control, this has caused the behavioural changes. Additionally, she is on the threshold of adolescence where their behaviour and moods can change dramatically. Having said that, I think you are best to pursue the avenue of overmedication as a first explanation though. Are you familiar with what your children's levels of 17-OHP, androstenedione etc, usually are, and how they were prior to increasing the doses, for comparison?
A little story from last week, to illustrate possible effects of steroids. One night, last week my mother rang me and thought she was loosing her mind and was quite depressed and frantic, (most unlike her). As it turned out, she was just tapering off a course of Prednisolone for her asthma. She had been having a VERY high dose for 3 - 4 days, then had weaned down, as per instructions from her Doctor. It seems to me, very likely that she was having some kind of episode related to the steroids.....or was it a coincidence? I think not, as I have never seen or heard her like this before.
Hope you get some resolution to your twins' levels soon. Adolescence, does often require quite a bit of dose juggling.
Rosalie
