Experience with Intuniv (guanfacine)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just wanted to say I'm blogging day by day our experience with Intuniv for my 7 almost 8 y.o son ADHD-HI. Only on day 2 of loading does, but so far no side effects at all, and perhaps slight improvement at home

duh blog is feMOMhist.blogspot.com if you are interested in all the gory details

[Anonymous]

My daughter has been taking Intuniv for 2 weeks today. Last week she was bumped up from 1mg to 2mgs. In the last several days I have been seeing her not be able to sleep because she is having horrible nightmares or she will fall asleep but then wake up from nightmares that seem to be very vivid? Has anyone else gone through this and has it subsided with time? I also will notice her face being very pale which makes me think her blood pressure is dropping. She has never had problems with sleeping before and is taking Intuniv for her inability to concentrate not hyperactivity. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[Anonymous]

DS, 9, has taken Intuniv together with a stimulant for the past two years. He currently takes 3 mg. At first, it really was helpful in reducing impulsivity and rebound effect. After a year or so, despite bumping up the dosage to 3 and even 4 mg, there was no effect. In addition, he had lots of falling asleep issues. He is currently using the Daytrana patch and we now find that he falls asleep with no problem. It's even possible that we may have to reduce the dosage back down to 2 mg. We think Daytrana has worked very well for him but the Intuniv also seems more helpful. He's never had any negative reaction to the Intuniv.

FWIW, when he started Daytrana, he began taking Intuniv in the morning, rather than the evening. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has been taking Intuniv for 2 weeks today. Last week she was bumped up from 1mg to 2mgs. In the last several days I have been seeing her not be able to sleep because she is having horrible nightmares or she will fall asleep but then wake up from nightmares that seem to be very vivid? Has anyone else gone through this and has it subsided with time? I also will notice her face being very pale which makes me think her blood pressure is dropping. She has never had problems with sleeping before and is taking Intuniv for her inability to concentrate not hyperactivity. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Our son is 12 and has started on his 2nd week of 3mg. He is also having nightmares that aren't of scary monsters just vivid about things flying toward him like shadows. He cries and is very scared but once he is asleep he sleeps through the night. It's like falling asleep or when he first falls asleep. Tics and behavior has improved alot just the nightmares. Does anyone know if this last or stays? Please any input will help ease our minds. We feel like we have found a good combination of meds but worry about nightmares. SPL

[Anonymous]

That shit has me where i can't hardly urinate

[Anonymous]

Tenex has done that to me.

[Anonymous]

Has been amazing for us!

At low dosages is key or the right dosage, more accurately.

[Anonymous]

My 6 year old also had horrible sleep issues on Intuniv and night terrors. He was on 1 mg for about 6 weeks and we finally switched to Strattera and the night time issues have gone away.

[Anonymous]

Slightly off topic - how is Intuniv for ASD kids who are extremely hyperactive? DS is ASD, verbal but exhibits extreme hyperactivity and lack of focus. He is constantly stimming verbally and physically. He continually tosses items up and down in front of his eyes. He's on 2 mg. of clonidine at bedtime, which has helped with aggression and overall hyperactivity, but not with the repetitive behaviors and lack of focus.

Methylphenidate was a disaster for him - it made him twitchy and irritable, aggravating his aggression. He was also weepy. We also tried Quillavant (sp?), the extended form of methylphenidate. I'm not surprised by this reaction because DH has always reacted adversely to Sudafed in a similar way, and I think the underlying stimulant is the same.

We tried Vyvance once for 3 days and he began to have hallucinations. DS is 9, and the loss of focus and attention is worsening. Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

My daughter has been taking Intuniv for 2 weeks today. Last week she was bumped up from 1mg to 2mgs. In the last several days I have been seeing her not be able to sleep because she is having horrible nightmares or she will fall asleep but then wake up from nightmares that seem to be very vivid? Has anyone else gone through this and has it subsided with time

I'm an adult, but I had this problem with Intuiv originally. My doc had advised me to take it in the evening because it can cause drowsiness. When I switched to the morning, the problem subsided.

[Anonymous]

My 12 year old son is on 36mg Concerta and 1mg Intunive. He gets good grades and was doing well when the pharmacy gave him Guanfacine instead of Intunive (which they said was the same medicine, but the generic), so continued on with the Guanfacine and I began noticing his anxiety was higher than normal. (I did not think about the change from Intunive to Guanfacine, because they said they were the same). I thought his rise in anxiety was due only to starting the 6th grade, and all the different classes, new kids, hurrying from class to class, and the fact that he had two teachers who were sarcastic and intimidating and mean. And my son is sensitive as it is, like most ADHD kids. He began to hate going to school, and began having panic attacks. After doing some more research on the web site "ADDitude", I found out that many people have taken Guanfacine and then when going to a new Dr., they were given Intunive because the Dr. Thought it worked better! I am pretty sure he is right , (in my son's case anyway). I found out that if the Dr. wants the patient to have the Intunive, they have to write that on the prescription so that the insurance company doesn't make the pharmacy give the generic instead. We did go to the school and have a parent /teacher/school counselor, meeting to let them know just what we thought of the sarcastic remarks and embarrassing and intimidating my son, (and other students too from what my son said).
Intunive works on "Emotional Sensitivity", the Guanfacine was not doing the same thing! So don't believe it if they say, they are the same thing! They are not, if they were the insurance companies would care about paying for the name brand because their wouldn't be a difference in price.....but their is! Beware!

Good Luck and God Bless!
TakeAStand, NH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 12 year old son is on 36mg Concerta and 1mg Intunive. He gets good grades and was doing well when the pharmacy gave him Guanfacine instead of Intunive (which they said was the same medicine, but the generic), so continued on with the Guanfacine and I began noticing his anxiety was higher than normal. (I did not think about the change from Intunive to Guanfacine, because they said they were the same). I thought his rise in anxiety was due only to starting the 6th grade, and all the different classes, new kids, hurrying from class to class, and the fact that he had two teachers who were sarcastic and intimidating and mean. And my son is sensitive as it is, like most ADHD kids. He began to hate going to school, and began having panic attacks. After doing some more research on the web site "ADDitude", I found out that many people have taken Guanfacine and then when going to a new Dr., they were given Intunive because the Dr. Thought it worked better! I am pretty sure he is right , (in my son's case anyway). I found out that if the Dr. wants the patient to have the Intunive, they have to write that on the prescription so that the insurance company doesn't make the pharmacy give the generic instead. We did go to the school and have a parent /teacher/school counselor, meeting to let them know just what we thought of the sarcastic remarks and embarrassing and intimidating my son, (and other students too from what my son said).
Intunive works on "Emotional Sensitivity", the Guanfacine was not doing the same thing! So don't believe it if they say, they are the same thing! They are not, if they were the insurance companies would care about paying for the name brand because their wouldn't be a difference in price.....but their is! Beware!

Good Luck and God Bless!
TakeAStand, NH

It is only in the past few months that there has been a generic version of Intuniv. That explains why the cost of our son's prescription just went down substantially!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 12 year old son is on 36mg Concerta and 1mg Intunive. He gets good grades and was doing well when the pharmacy gave him Guanfacine instead of Intunive (which they said was the same medicine, but the generic), so continued on with the Guanfacine and I began noticing his anxiety was higher than normal. (I did not think about the change from Intunive to Guanfacine, because they said they were the same). I thought his rise in anxiety was due only to starting the 6th grade, and all the different classes, new kids, hurrying from class to class, and the fact that he had two teachers who were sarcastic and intimidating and mean. And my son is sensitive as it is, like most ADHD kids. He began to hate going to school, and began having panic attacks. After doing some more research on the web site "ADDitude", I found out that many people have taken Guanfacine and then when going to a new Dr., they were given Intunive because the Dr. Thought it worked better! I am pretty sure he is right , (in my son's case anyway). I found out that if the Dr. wants the patient to have the Intunive, they have to write that on the prescription so that the insurance company doesn't make the pharmacy give the generic instead. We did go to the school and have a parent /teacher/school counselor, meeting to let them know just what we thought of the sarcastic remarks and embarrassing and intimidating my son, (and other students too from what my son said).
Intunive works on "Emotional Sensitivity", the Guanfacine was not doing the same thing! So don't believe it if they say, they are the same thing! They are not, if they were the insurance companies would care about paying for the name brand because their wouldn't be a difference in price.....but their is! Beware!

Good Luck and God Bless!
TakeAStand, NH

It is only in the past few months that there has been a generic version of Intuniv. That explains why the cost of our son's prescription just went down substantially!

PP again. It looks like the generic form only comes in 1-2 mg dosages. Our DS takes 3 mg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the feedback. It seems like the guanfacine would be a good thing to try and we absolutely would consider the short acting dose. We're seeing Dr. Conlon on Tuesday (we saw the regular pediatrician yesterday - he's also good and knew we'd be seeing Dr. Conlon soon) and will ask him about it. Thanks again!

Off topic. Is Dr. Co?noon back in private practice. We were very disappointed when he closed his prior practice and went to Kaiser, it think?

[Anonymous]

My 7 year old daughter was prescribed several drugs for ADHD, Vyvanse and most recently Intuniv. After nearly a month of night terrors and animated dreaming we pulled her off Intuniv and have immediately seen improved, restful sleeping. I can’t tell you how devastating it was to see her in an inconsolable dreamlike haze lasting from 45 minutes to several hours. Her terrors consisted of things crawling on walls and macabre events, something I truly found odd as we heavily monitor her television/news/etc.l intake. Thankfully we’re all getting some rest now and can tackle the day with clarity. Intuniv may work for other but it was a nightmare of a drug for us.