Strattera - help!

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My son (9yo, HFA, ADHD, epilepsy) has been taking ritalin for about a year.

We switched to Strattera to about 3 weeks ago, hoping it would make evenings less hectic and because of ritalin side effects. For the time being he is still on ritalin. (to be fased out in 2 weeks.)
I was anxious about the change, because my son has been pretty stable on ritalin - maybe some of you remember me mailing about his horrific meltdowns before he started on ritalin/epilepsy medication.

The first week of Strattera was great - the low dose seemed to be working.

Now he is behaving really badly - sudden bursts of impulsiveness and hyperactivity. They start quicly and stop quickly.
He is REALLY REALLY dependent on his schedule/pictograms - more than ever before.The minute he doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing his off like a fire cracker.
He is obsessing over time - this morning wouldn't take his medicine until 7.00.00 exactly - was sitting with his watch waiting.
Is up at the crack of dawn - running, jumping and beoing pretty annoying until he gets his first dose of ritalin.

This all could be coincidence ... or it could be the medicine change. Anybody have experience with Strattera.
Could it be the dose just has to be higher, alternative lower?

We tried Strattera earlier this school year for our 11 year old, and we had the opposite problem -- we couldn't see any change at all. Maybe the only change that we saw was he was kind of depressed.

I would definitely call your doctor and ask about this. I'm learning that trying to find the right med is really tricky, and that I need to contact the doctor immediately when I see an adverse effect from meds. SO FRUSTRATING!

We had a good experience with Metadate, which is just the long-acting version of Ritalin. We stopped it almost a year ago because it had lost it's effectiveness, but in the interim we tried Strattera, Concerta, and Adderall -- the first two seemed ineffective, and the Adderall made my son very depressed and very strange (others have had great success with it). So we are BACK on the Metadate, and if this doesn't work properly, then we may have to consider cyber school. It's just very hard for my son to pay attention in school, even though he gets good grades and has a fairly good social life.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Kris

Stratera made my son depressed. What works for him is Focalin.

Try cutting out all sugars and refined flours from his diet, then give him a "helpful" stim such as repetitive hand weight movement or jumping with a weighted vest on.

Thanks all for the advice.
I got onto the psychiatrist, who said lower the dose and see what happens... he may adjust, he says... and to ring after Easter. Crossing my fingers the holidays don't turn into hell...
We already have him doing excercize daily, and he generally has a very healthy diet with few sugars, lots of fruit and veg, and refined carbohydreated (mostly rye bread, wholegrain bread and pasta ect.). We try to keep candy to once a week. But thanks any way.

I am an 11 year old who takes Straterra, and it has had a major effect on me that I don't know what my family can do about it.

I NEVER EAT. I went from 150 pounds to 130 in two weeks, and a 34 inch waist to a 32 inch in 1 week. I know this is not healthy, but I'm never hungry. I need to do something, but this has GOT to stop.

jacobdallen, you really should go back to the doctor -- you need to eat to be able to grow. That much of a weight loss is not normal. Unless Strattera is doing magical things for you, the lack of interest in eating is a major negative side effect. There are other meds to try, and at your age (the same age as my son) you should be eating like a horse. One of the major things that doctors look for as a negative side effect of these ADHD meds is NOT EATING. For years people have talked about Ritalin being tough on kids because they tend to not grow -- it's really NOT that they aren't GROWING, it's that they aren't EATING, which in turn results in a lack of growth. So GET TO THE DOCTOR!

Katrine, I'm wondering how your son is doing on the lower dose of Strattera after Easter vacation. I hope that he's doing better!

Kris

It seems a little better on the lower dose, but the plan is to put his dose up again, but more slowly.
I'm still not sure what to think of Strattera. My son is awake at the crack of dawn, and absolutely not ADHD-medicated untill he gets his ritalin at 7.00, so the early mornings are hell.
I've tried setting an alarm clock for my son and telling him to play Nintendo untill the clock goes off, but it's not really working.
I think we will keep "doing" Strattera for a while, untill we're on full dose, and if it just isn't working, we'll go back to ritalin. I'm still unsure about whether the behaviour I'm seeing is related to Strattera or not.

Katrine, I think your idea of seeing how things go when your son is on a full dose of Strattera is good. If you don't see obvious improvements relatively soon, stop the med and try something else. It really is such a crap shoot to see which med works with people, you just have to keep trying until you find something, or, in our case, soon, if nothing works, we may have to give up on meds and adjust life to fit.

I'm glad to hear that things seem to be going a little better!

Kris

My doctor just took my son off Stratterra. It had some effectiveness as far as helping him concentrate, but he was still pretty distracted. Plus it had the added side effects of making him very sick. We tried splitting the dose, but then it lost its effectiveness completely. He is on concerta now.