[sues250]

My 10 year old recently was put on Strattera. She was on 54 mg of Concerta and was seeing some facial tics so the dr. decided to slowly take her off of it while introducing the Strattera. So far so good. The best thing has been the mornings she was awful in the mornings before this. At the present time she is on 18 mg of the concerta and 60mg of Strattera. Anyone else seeing anything positive or negative?

[Dr. Art]

Dear Sues,

Several of the families I treat have switched to Strattera from a stimulant and report excellent results...fewer sleep problems, improved appitite, and generally more favorable results.

Good luck

[SB8]

My experience is a little different. I have two children with ADHD symptoms. My daughter is highly impulsive and inattentive. My son was mildly inattentive. My daughter was on 10mg adderall but was extremely irritable. I wanted to try strattera for both.

My Son was put on first 10mg. We saw an immediate relaxation affect. But attention was no better. We upped the dose to 18mg then to 25mg at which point he began falling asleep in school. We took him off of the medication.

My daughter was taken off of adderall and put on 10mg of strattera and was just like she was without her adderal. No improvement in attention or impulsiveness. We upped the dose to 18mg and saw no improvement. I was told to supplement this with 5 mg of adderal. Her impulsiveness improved and her attention improved and no irritablility. We then took her completely off strattera and were able to maintain her on 5 mg of adderal.

In conclusion, I don't think the strattera helped my kids at all. We gave each dosage at least a 4 week trial to make sure that it was at its peak performance and still no lasting positive affect.

When I told my psychiatrist these findings, she said she was hearing this from alot of her patients. In her findings, it seemed that the strattera helped with the severely hyper kids the most, but did not affect the attention or impulsivity too much.

[Dr. Art]

Of course, one of the critical factors is that medication only works for the condition it is designed to treat. Many children are misdiagnosed with ADHD or ADD who have other conditions. One red flag is when the usual meds are ineffective or stop working after a few weeks/months. So, it may be that the poor response to the Adderal and Strattera could be that the children do not actually have ADHD.

Regards,

[Debbula]

The 4-1/2 year old we are planning to bring home was placed on 20 mg Strattera (something we are quite upset about) Everything I have found regarding the drug states it has not been tested on children under the age of six. Is this Psyc off his nut or is Strattera being prescriibed for younger kids? Also, what are the most common side effects you have seen? Is somulence present? Thank you for the info.

Debra

[sues250]

The only side effect we have seen is she has lost weight. This time of year is really hard for her and she has kept her behaviors under control better this year then she has in previous years. Good luck with your 4 1/2 yr old.

[Rennietmac]

I have a 9 year old son that has been on ADHD med since the age of 3. We also tried to switch from Concerta to Straterra. I thought great we don't have to pester the dr every month, it's a 24 hr drug, this is going to work great! But when he first started taking it he slept all day long. After 2 weeks of that we gave it to him at bed time. Then he stayed up all night. After giving it a month we went back to the Concerta. My dr has had great results with her patients too, but my son was just not one of them. I am just glad that I tried over the summer and not during the school year.

[Dianna]

Our daughter tried switching to straterra this summer. She was taking 54 mg. Concerta before that. She was irratible and sleepy in the mornings with 60 mg. straterra. We went back to Concerta but then tried again giving her the straterra at night. Now she takes 40 mg. straterra at night and 18 mg Concerta in the morning. The psychiatrist wants to try 60 mg straterra. I have noticed that she has seemed generally and genuinely happy for the last couple of weeks which is something new for her. He also said that he has had very good results with some of his patients.

[reneetaylor]

What is everyone's opinion on Ritalin? My 6 yr old daughter is on it for impulsiveness, lack of focus, and other typical ADHD behaviors.

Renee

[Rennietmac]

I had good result with Ritalin. That was the first med my son was on. But it only lasted a couple of hours for him. For most children it will last the full four hours. Although he had a decrease in appetite. He would eat lunch, but that was about the same time his med had worn off. But kids not eating is a norm side affect of a lot of ADD/ADHD meds. My son has his appetite with Concerta, but my friends son doesn't. All kids do different on different drugs.

[sues250]

My daughter was on Ritalin for years before she moved in with me. About 6 months later we started seeing an increase of behaviors at school and tried to take her off and try other meds she has been on a bunch with really bad side effects but you never know every kid is different. Right now the right mix has been Concerta, Strattra and Prozac.

Any ideas on the food issues sometimes it is quite an ordeal to get through a meal? She was a bit overweight but now is just the right weight and I would hate for her to continue losing.
The weight gain was with Risperdal as the medication.

[dhalf]

I wanted to add a note about the Strattera. Our son was put on it in April, and we loved it. After a few months we increased from 25 to 40 mg. and all was still well. Then he started having complaints of stomach pain, esp. cramping before **'s, and generally feeling lousy for an hour in the morning. We had just started taking nutritional supplements, so I blamed it on them. We kept taking away things, trying to figure out what it was. Finally we realized it was the strattera. We backed down the dose to 25, and added 10 mg. in the evening. And again, thought all was well. Gradually Austin started having anger problems, which eventually became blow ups where he was irrational and couldn't be reasoned with. I was at my wits end and looking for behavioral ideas on an ADHD forum, when I found numerous reports of parents whose kids had uncontrolled anger from the strattera....I hadn't even considered that. The side effects list mood swings, not rage. We tapered down and have been off for 6 days and life is immensely better. Just wanted to add a cautionary note. Even though it appears the meds are well tolerated, side effects were definitely not immediate for us. I know many kids have done well on it, and I hope yours do as well!

[Dr. Art]

Good point. On any new med it is vital that you closely monitor your child for any changes of a physical or psychological nature. There can be side effects and you need to monitor carefully to see what happens.

[MNlady]

My son started on stattera today. The doctor started him on 10 mg at bedtime. She told me to watch for any side effects and to call if I see anything changing for the worse. We have another appt for 3 weeks when she plans to up him to 18 mg.

Am really hoping this helps him, if not, we try something else.

[bennett/kevin]

i have had excellent results with adderall since my daughter
was 9..
and they said she could have 10 mg in the morning and
10 mg at noon..this made her too intense!!!!
she never smiled...
so we only five her 5mg half a pill for the entire day.

5mg a day!!!!!!

we dont like giving these meds to her ...but we are comfortable
with this small dose..
she is all A;s and B;s .....

if we really wanted to ..we could give her the other half of the
pill when she got home to help her with the homework
and maybe as she gets older.. we will