Concerta, Adderall -- neither one is showing effectiveness

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wsmac, you bring up some REALLY good points that I totally agree with. And you also give me hope -- I've been thinking that there may come a time in the future where it will be pointless to have my son on medication, that his maturity level will catch up to him and he will be able to do things on his own like your daughter has.

The pattern you described is very much my son -- he does sit at the front of the class (if I can believe what the school administrators tell me), but I still think that he loses focus. He does extremely well studying at home, but homework can take a long time still. He gets very good grades lately -- I try to explain to him that if he paid attention in math class, for instance, his homework would go much quicker and he would be able to get to what HE wants to do quicker. Well, that's a stupid thing for me to say, because if he could control this situation, he would, I am sure.

Today, for the first time, he finished a good bunch of his homework at school (which NEVER happens). As you've pointed out, I don't know whether this is due to the medication or just a "good day." I've contacted his teachers, and they say that they haven't noticed any improvement in attention -- in fact, his last teacher of the day says she's noticed that he's much more emotional and negative than usual, which I'm guessing is due to the Adderall "come-down" that happens in the afternoon.

Kris

coughiwillbuyyouradderallcough

I'd start a freakin revolution if I got 8 hours of homework. 'Course, I worked 8 hours a day for a lot of years, but I was well over 40 before the 16 hour days started.

Anyone on the board have the standard attention span stats. I don't think an 8 year old can last for 8 hours of homework. You might be looking at reducing the homework load and reducing the drugs.

My 2 cents.

btdt

This is an 11 year old boy (almost 12 now), and after 2-1/2 weeks, the Adderall does seem to be helping -- it's not earth-shattering results, but he is getting homework done in a very timely manner, and he seems happy. At first, he really didn't seem happy, but I think that he's adjusted now.

I think too much homework is ridiculous, too. Today is a prime example -- he had a little bit of homework in almost every class (five classes). But, unlike usual, today he did things in a timely manner. Now, the Adderall wears off in the afternoon, right about the time he probably begins his homework. But maybe he was able to pay attention better in class, which helped him finish his homework quickly. Who knows. If I see anything negative, I'm pulling him off of this stuff. So far, though, it seems to be going well.

Kris

What about Focalin? We tried Adderall / Strattera / Concentra and
none of these worked. What did work was Focalin. This
is the first year that we went to parent/teacher conference and
the teacher said that he is doing great! He is doing everything that he is supposed to be doing in class. We usually had to hear "he's not listening" "he's not paying attention" "he's not following directions" "he's not here, his mind is somewhere else"..etc.
He is also taking Tenex - this helps alleviate the stims.

Yeah, I think that Focalin might be the next step. I'm in a real quandry right now, because I think the Adderall is helping A LITTLE. Not an earth-shattering amount, but a little. He seems to be getting his homework done in a timely manner (although I think the Adderall has worn off by the time he does his homework) -- but the teachers seem to see no change in his lack of ability to pay attention during class. Only one teacher, the last class of the day, has mentioned that he is more emotional than usual at that time. This may help in getting a prescription for Adderall XR. I hate this whole merry-go-round. Maybe he's doing better with his homework just because he's maturing and has the routine down? Who knows.

Thanks for the good info about Focalin, momtanic.

Kris

We saw slight improvement on the other meds, but not enough to keep him on them especially since he was having side effects (headaches, depression) with them. His biggest issue in school was not paying attention in class. Focalin XR has been a great
med for him. It remains in his system for the entire school day.

The homework marathons, we know about those too. My son has had many nights where homework went into 5 or more hours. He often starts on his way home from school, say about 3:30, then comes home and distracts himself with bathroom breaks, snacks, etc. while doing his work intermittently. We'll eat dinner about 5:00, and after dinner he may procrastinate again, then we start giving him prompts, pushes, etc. to get it done. Depending on how much he was given, he'll finish somewhere between 8:00 and 10:00. It takes way too long, and we don't like it. He tends to fight it the whole way which drags it out, probably three or four times longer than it might otherwise take. I often wonder if the homework is really that necessary. The math repitition does seem to have been beneficial, but much of the rest is pointless in my opinion.

Anyway, regarding medications, here's something new we've tried that seems to have promise. It's called Daytrana, a stimulant in patch form. For our son it has really smoothed out the roughness he had with Adderall. The pills were too abrupt and unpredictable, not doing anything sometimes then the next time overstimulating him and leaving him irritable or overly sensitive. The patches give a steady release unlike medication that is absorbed through the stomach which can be affected by food, acids, etc. Stimulants have to be used judiciously because they may help with focus but raise anxiety, a real problem with kids (or adults) that have comorbid disorders. Sometimes medications do help, but you really need to monitor them to find the right balance and adjust when necessary.

As far as the medication goes, every child is different. My oldest son has ADHD and my youngest has AS and is very hyperactive. With my oldest Concerta worked great for him, but he's only on 18mg. With my youngest we tried everything under the sun with poor results. He either zoned out like a vegetable or was more hyper. Recently we tried Vyvanse. It's in the same family as Adderall, but is an extended release with lower dosing amounts. It has been working great for him. He doesn't veg out but is still able to have some self control. He's been on it since August and I've been very impressed with it so far.
I had the same problem with homework with my 9 year old. He was In "his zone" all day during school and didn't complete all of his work there and then had homework on top of that. It would take us 4 and 5 hours a night to finish it all when it should have only taken 10 to 20 minutes. So, I finally talked to his teacher and the school counselor and we've come up with a solution that works great for us. Since the biggest problem for him was the actual sitting and writing the answers, we bought a small digital recorder and he was allowed to verbally record his answers instead of writing them down. This was especially helpful with math homework which was a whole lot more tedious than some of his other work. We've been doing this for 2 years now and it's been very successful. We've gotten the homework routine down to 30 minutes a night. His teachers have also let him record some of his lessons in class. This has made getting all of his work and completing all of his work a whole lot easier!

I have some experience in this area. My 17-year old daughter is ADHD and has been on concerta for years (initally, we tried aderall with disasterous effects). My 10-year old son is AS. In fact, his dx came about when his teacher thought he was ADD due to classroom distraction/inattention. His dr put him on ritalin and he went into full-blown anxiety/ocd. Psych eval, yadda, yadda. . . aspergers. Anyway, although his teacher still screams inattention/distraction, his psych refuses to consider stimulants as they increase anxiety (as we see in my teen). Anxiety, psych states, is the cause for our son's distraction/inattention. To make short a long story, we are still tweaking his anxiety meds and he gets a healthy dose of therapy. We hope eventually, we'll have the right combination of each and THAT will help with the distraction/inattention.

As a mom used to the endless frustrating repetition of homework distraction (in both kids, btw) and meltdowns, I agree with everyone else that 8 hours is too long for homework. It doesn't sound like he's getting too much take-home-work as a rule, but that it's taking too long to complete it. Because verbal testing is an option (for my son), we check him orally and write his answers ourselves. We sign the paper as 'did together.' As for studying for tests, and memory work, the principal has reminded us not to beat it (so to speak) into him. As long as they're not failing, how important are the grades really? I can see math and reading, where the skills build one off the other and therefore it's important that they get it. But for example, history and science, where they're continually learning new things that have little to do with the previous, memory retention isn't so important. I mean, I want my son to get A's and B's, but a C's satisfactory (good even) and a D may feel disappointing, but it's a passing grade. Please don't get me wrong, we don't have lower expectations for our AS son, but we do have different expectations. For us mental well-being is much more important than academic standing in his school.

Have you tried Focalin? This is what works for my 10yr old son. Concerta & Adderall did not help him.