how did ADHD meds help your child's demeanor, personality (as opposed to school work, focus)

[Anonymous]

i would be interested in if and how medicating your child's ADHD impacted their personality and demeanor. we have decision to make. our 6yo dd just makes it in school at grade level, so it isn't crucial that we do the meds for her academic needs. but her behavior (moreso at home than at school) is just awful. she's angry, rude, pushy, aggressive, mean. rarely says a pleasant word to anyone in the family. frequently makes mountains out of molehills and so on. did ADHD meds help this for your family. at school, she is fine socially. she is very sensitive with her schoolmate, but other than that, no major problems. teachers have never commented on her behavior or adjustment, for example.

but home life is becoming unbearable.

[Anonymous]

ADHD meds have helped my daughter with some of the issues listed above. THey haven't gone away entirely, but they help her regulate her responses and control her impulses.

[Anonymous]

It's very common for kids not to be able to hold it together for the entire day, and to have more trouble in one place than another.

One thing to consider is whether something at school aids her (structure/rules/expectations) or perhaps she simply is too exhausted after the effort at school to do the same at home. For the former, you could consider making the home front more like school, with clear expectations, etc. For the latter, she may get better over time. Also I would suggest family play therapy -- too much to go into here, but basically you drop whatever adult thing you are doing/want to do and get on the floor with her. You spend 15 minutes doingwhatever she wants to do playwise-- dollies, action figures, puppets, whatever. This can totally relax a child and help lessen their anxiety, plus open up communications. The most important part is that she directs the entire 15 minutes, whatever it is. Google it for more tips or seek professional guidance on it.

If you are going to go the med route, look into intuniv. Less of a "focus" type of drug; more of a "lessen the physical aspects and impulsivity" type of drug. Fairly long history with this drug, as it was prescribed as Tenex originally, for tics. We've found it very helpful for DD; it's very calming. You could also consider an SSRI.

Good luck! Our experience as been steady but slow growth in control and behavior in school and non-school settings, using cognitive and play therapies and medication (stimulants for a time and now a low dose of intuniv).

[Anonymous]

My son was exactly as you describe your daughter, though he tended to reserve most of his obnoxiousness for at home. He started on medication and has completely turned around. I am one of the few people I know who thought the tweens and early teens were great. It has always appeared to me that my son was missing bits and pieces of information because of his ADHD so he didn't seem to understand what was going on. Then he'd get angry because either he didn't understand or he misperceived the situation.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PPs. Medication didn't change my son's personality/demeanor at all. It allowed him to better regulate his emotions, not have a hair trigger temper, not be so irritable, not so likely to beat himself up, less likely to get overwrought, etc. It helped control the flooding. Now, I have to say we didn't get positive results with the first medication we tried but he's done well with his current one and seemingly no side effects.

[Anonymous]

For the two PPs, what medications are they on?

[Anonymous]

Less anxious, less irritable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the two PPs, what medications are they on?

16:29 here. My DS takes Intuniv 2 mg.

[Anonymous]

First PP here. DD is on 30 mg of Vyvanse.

[Anonymous]

Meds don't change personality/demeanor. They do help a child to regulate him/herself. DS takes 20 mg of Vyvanse, and 3 mg of Intuniv. As a PP noted, Intuniv can be helpful with impulsivity. In the morning, DS is often very moody until the meds kick in, although it's gotten better.

I know people think that deciding to medicate is a decision with a capital D but really, it is not that big a deal in our experience. I'm not saying that meds will make everything perfect -- they don't, and it can take time to find the right one at the right dose. But they can be helpful and, if they don't work well (some kids don't do well on meds), that's also okay and your child won't be scarred by the experience. I'll also note that, while we didn't have any second thoughts about medication, we obviously wish that DS did not have to deal with ADHD and take medication. Good luck, OP!

[Anonymous]

I am the less anxious/less irritable poster. However, what I realized is that the meds slow him down. Without his Focalin/Straterra cocktail, my son's speech in hyperdrive. Talk a bout a fast talker, plus he seems to verbally bounce around without competing a sentence. With the meds, he has an almost normal speech pattern (although still fast than most people). I have never seen anything like it.

[Anonymous]

13:44 here. My son takes 15 mg. Focalin XR.

[Anonymous]

Just found this regarding meds and behavior, so I thought it was appropriate to post on this thread.



Prescription Drugs Associated with Reports of Violence Towards Others......
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3002271/?tool=pubmed

Results
We identified 1527 cases of violence disproportionally reported for 31 drugs. Primary suspect drugs included varenicline (an aid to smoking cessation), 11 antidepressants, 6 sedative/hypnotics and 3 drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The evidence of an association was weaker and mixed for antipsychotic drugs and absent for all but 1 anticonvulsant/mood stabilizer. Two or fewer violence cases were reported for 435/484 (84.7%) of all evaluable drugs suggesting that an association with this adverse event is unlikely for these drugs.

Conclusions
Acts of violence towards others are a genuine and serious adverse drug event associated with a relatively small group of drugs. Varenicline, which increases the availability of dopamine, and antidepressants with serotonergic effects were the most strongly and consistently implicated drugs. Prospective studies to evaluate systematically this side effect are needed to establish the incidence, confirm differences among drugs and identify additional common features.