Lamictal or Clonidine for teen with ADHD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds a bit like my DD. Wellbutrin and clonidine didn't work for her at all. Haven't tried Lamictal. Stimulants and buspar help a little. Even with similar symptoms, kids just have different biochemistry so there's inevitably an element of trial and error. Was bipolar ruled out? It's repeatedly been floated for my DD, but she is on the young side for a diagnosis so we're seeing how things go for the next couple of years. In any case, I think clonidine is definitely worth trying - I've heard many good experiences even though it wasn't helpful for us.

Yes, bipolar was not mentioned but she is on the younger teen side. Normally her moods don’t fluctuate unless she is over excited about being impulsive or really upset about being told no to something (hence the ODD diagnosis)

Did the Clonidine just not affect them or did it just snow them too much? Her psychiatrist made it seem like she was going to start her taking this in the AM and not PM like most of her clients do. She has never had sleep issues, even while on stimulants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter is on Clonidine and it is so helpful to just take the edge off. She is still definitely her, but less sensitive to the environment around her.

OP here - does she take it at night or AM? Thanks!

At night but our Dr said the reason to initially start at night is because it can cause dizziness which you don’t want to discover during the day when you need to be at school. Sometimes she switches kids to half dose in the morning and half in evening but that didn’t seem necessary for our DD so she continues to just takes it at night.

[Anonymous]

We’ve had great success with lamictal for my ADHD child who sounds very similar to yours. We’d gone the non-stim route prior to that (straterra) and it was a nightmare in terms of mood dysregulation and didn’t help with the ADHD. So then we started him on Lamictal and saw a huge positive change in behavior with zero side effects, and stayed on it ever since. He still struggled with focus though in school, so we ended up adding 20 mg of Vyvanse to the Lamictal and together they have been game changers. He’s a different child now (age 12– he’s been on these for a little over a year now.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter is on Clonidine and it is so helpful to just take the edge off. She is still definitely her, but less sensitive to the environment around her.

OP here - does she take it at night or AM? Thanks!

At night but our Dr said the reason to initially start at night is because it can cause dizziness which you don’t want to discover during the day when you need to be at school. Sometimes she switches kids to half dose in the morning and half in evening but that didn’t seem necessary for our DD so she continues to just takes it at night.

Thank you for your response. Do you see a difference during the entire day even when taken at night? It looks like the half life is 12 hours so I am nervous it won't work well if she takes it at night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve had great success with lamictal for my ADHD child who sounds very similar to yours. We’d gone the non-stim route prior to that (straterra) and it was a nightmare in terms of mood dysregulation and didn’t help with the ADHD. So then we started him on Lamictal and saw a huge positive change in behavior with zero side effects, and stayed on it ever since. He still struggled with focus though in school, so we ended up adding 20 mg of Vyvanse to the Lamictal and together they have been game changers. He’s a different child now (age 12– he’s been on these for a little over a year now.)

Thank you. My psychiatrist said the same thing. They have seen it help dysregulation with a lot less side effects than other meds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter is on Clonidine and it is so helpful to just take the edge off. She is still definitely her, but less sensitive to the environment around her.

OP here - does she take it at night or AM? Thanks!

At night but our Dr said the reason to initially start at night is because it can cause dizziness which you don’t want to discover during the day when you need to be at school. Sometimes she switches kids to half dose in the morning and half in evening but that didn’t seem necessary for our DD so she continues to just takes it at night.

Thank you for your response. Do you see a difference during the entire day even when taken at night? It looks like the half life is 12 hours so I am nervous it won't work well if she takes it at night.

Yes, the positive effects seem to last all day for our daughter so we have not seriously considered doing half at night and half in the morning. Adding a second dose to remember feels unnecessarily burdensome in our case when doing just one dose at night works well.

[Anonymous]

Clonidine was a game changer for my Audhd son. We initially started with a short acting dose in the evening. He did experience drowsiness about 90 minutes after taking it which began to subside about 30 days after we began with it. About 6 months later we decided to trial going off the stimulants he was taking during the day and doing 2 doses of the XR. We saw a big increase in emotional regulation and a similar effect on focus/hyperactivity with what we got on stimulants with none of the appetite suppression or rebound effect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter is on Clonidine and it is so helpful to just take the edge off. She is still definitely her, but less sensitive to the environment around her.

OP here - does she take it at night or AM? Thanks!

NP here but my kid takes the lamictal at night but clonidine both am and pm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, bipolar was not mentioned but she is on the younger teen side. Normally her moods don’t fluctuate unless she is over excited about being impulsive or really upset about being told no to something (hence the ODD diagnosis)

Did the Clonidine just not affect them or did it just snow them too much? Her psychiatrist made it seem like she was going to start her taking this in the AM and not PM like most of her clients do. She has never had sleep issues, even while on stimulants

It just didn't seem to do much other than making her more irritable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter is on Clonidine and it is so helpful to just take the edge off. She is still definitely her, but less sensitive to the environment around her.

OP here - does she take it at night or AM? Thanks!

NP here but my kid takes the lamictal at night but clonidine both am and pm

thank you - do you recommend one over the other to start

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, bipolar was not mentioned but she is on the younger teen side. Normally her moods don’t fluctuate unless she is over excited about being impulsive or really upset about being told no to something (hence the ODD diagnosis)

Did the Clonidine just not affect them or did it just snow them too much? Her psychiatrist made it seem like she was going to start her taking this in the AM and not PM like most of her clients do. She has never had sleep issues, even while on stimulants

It just didn't seem to do much other than making her more irritable.

That’s so interesting how each person is different. It calmed and slowed my child down so much. It has been a dream medication. The first few days were drowsy and lots of yawning but I am glad we stuck with it.

[Anonymous]

What about Intuniv?

[Anonymous]

That’s a tough one. It sounds like Lamactil is the best one for the issues, but Clonidine is probably the safer start.

[Anonymous]

Does Clonidine cause weight gain? I’ve heard that Guanfacine (Intuitiv) does in many people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter is on Clonidine and it is so helpful to just take the edge off. She is still definitely her, but less sensitive to the environment around her.

OP here - does she take it at night or AM? Thanks!

NP here but my kid takes the lamictal at night but clonidine both am and pm

thank you - do you recommend one over the other to start

My kid takes clonidine for anxiety and lamictal for DMDD mood swings; so for which one, I'd really talk to your doc abotu what they are using them to treat and whether to start with one or both.