Son was prescribed INTUNIV.... feedback, please.

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Hello,
"D" was diagnosed by the Neurologist today.
He has a mild form of ADD.
The doctor prescribed Intuniv.
He said it would also help him some with the traits of Autism... "D" has Asperger Syndrome.

Does anybody have any experience with using Intuniv ?
I really would appreciate any feedback ! !!

By the way, he started Intuniv this morning before school.
I have done a little reading on it this morning.
Will it make him sleepy ?
Do you give it at night, or in the morning ?

His Neurologist prescription says, 1mg in the morning for a week,
then start 2mg.

I will be interested in this medication as well. I am a licensed psychologist that has only recently been given information on this new nonstimulant medication. I will be interested to see how well it works since the only other nonstimulant medication out there for ADHD (Strattera) has met with minimal success IMHO in the patients of mine that have been prescribed it. I also have a personal interest, as my #1 son has been diagnosed with ADHD and AS, and #3 son has been diagnosed with autism. If Intuniv has any beneficial effect on ASD sx's, I would love to hear more about it.

Sean

Our neurologist did mention that this drug, Intuniv, does help some with the Autism Spectrum disorders.

Metadate was a nightmare for us last year, so this being our second try at a drug, well, I am hopefully optomistic.

Again, any feedback on this drug would be appreciated.
My son, "D" has been diagnosed with Asperger Synd. since kindergarten..... he is now a 4th grader and just started Intuniv this morning.

Intuniv = Tenex = Guanfacine. It was actually developed as a blood-pressure lowering drug.

I have no experience with this or any other drug - the only drug I will permit to alter my personality at all is caffeine.

But there is something you may want to consider. I was just reading an article last night that highlighted a problem doctors are just beginning to notice. The testing process for approving any drug is not designed to weigh the effects of long-term use. And they are slowly waking up to the fact that drugs which might only cause very rare horrible side effects in a very few people when used for a relatively short time can cause quite a few more problems when used long term. Avandia was one of the examples used - even though it was tested under conditions that at least contemplated its eventual use. In the case of a drug which was developed for a completely different purpose...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000057 But since this was so high on Google's list, you've probably found it.

Do you have a PI sheet? That should have a lot of information. If you don't understand all of it (it's not written to be understood by the laity, so there's no shame in that), feel free to post the phrase that's confusing you, just like you did with "co-morbid." If you don't have a PI sheet... that's a really bad thing.

I wish I could offer you some information but Im curious how your son is doing. My son was diagnosed ADHD in K then got an Aspergers diagnosis last October. We are seeing a Pediatric Neurologist who mentioned Intuniv for my son too but I havent heard much about it. So far, stimulants have helped my son some but they all quickly stopped working.

my son has been taking intuniv for about a year ... he takes it along with 20mg of vyvanse. He's just moved to a special needs school with a much smaller class and more attention so we will likely look at reducing the does of the vyvanse first and then the intunv.

We noticed that it helped with frustration tolerance almost immediately upon starting... We started with 1mg and moved to 2mg. I've read accounts of kids going higher but we haven't...

We haven't seen any negative side effects from these medications.

Rachel
mom to 9 yr son w/aspergers

Thank you, Rachel.
Our son who also is 9 yrs old and has Aspergers, just moved to 2mg today.
I did notice last week, that he seemed to have a greater attention span than before... and more patience as well ! !!
It seems promising.
I hope it keeps working

I appreciate the feedback on all of this, because our son hasn't been on meds before.
Any further feedback from parents or people using this drug, is much appreciated ! !

He started 2mg yesterday and day two, he seems quiet and droopy . I that to be expected ?
Help ! !! ! I think the acclamation period is not only for him,
But me as well... I am not used to this from
Him, and dont know if this is normal.
Help ! !! !

Remember that he is going to have better days and worse days, just like very other kid. Observe the long term patterns more than the day to day changes.

I appreciate that, DW, but as a parent who has always been "Leary" of meds, I sometimes wonder if my choice to try the meds on our son was the right thing to do.
We had to try something .... For his benefit, but inside, I for some reason feel so guilty.
Are we doing the right thing ?

Im so glad to hear that the 1mg dose seemed to be working for him. Have you spoken with his DR about his response to the bump to 2mg? Maybe the DR would be willing to adjust him back down to the 1mg dose. Hope he's doing better, keep us posted on how he's doing!

That I can't answer. My son isn't on medication. Every hurdle, every time others would have pushed us to do it, we found "one more thing" to try, environmentally or intervention wise, and pulled through without it. My son is "just" AS, no ADD, and that changes things. My daughter is probably ADD (no "H" and most likely not AS) and we're working with her on alternative strategies, similar to what my sister developed for herself, in the days before kids were diagnosed ADD. I've met kids that I would say need something more; my daughter isn't one of them. She's getting through school and learning; for her, the opportunity to develop her own natural strategies seems like a better investment than worrying about any educational aspects she isn't taking maximum advantage of. So ... I don't know what your journey's been and how many strategies you've tried and how close to the edge life for your child is without the extra help. I would assume that if you have reached this point, it is because you had no choice. If you aren't sure about that, and this is more what the doctors suggested than what you, as a parent, feel is the only choice - then reconsider. I think the important thing is for you to feel you've tried everything you know how to try, plus a few, and really see no other way to keep from going over the cliff. As parents, we'll all do whatever it takes to keep our kids from going over the cliff.

Yep. this is true. Our generations are drug guinea pigs for these companies.