Do you think stimulants permanently affected your child?
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Anonymous
Sample size of 1 ... But my kid with ADHD-I has done really well on Strattera. Had no hyperactivity or impulsivity issues just inability to maintain focus or concentration, and the associated executive function issues. Also has mild anxiety disorder and was thin, so the psychiatrist wanted to try Strattera first rather than stimulants. Some improvements after 2 months; after 5-6 months the improvements were dramatic. first I also know a child who had strong, negative side effects with Strattera, which subsided as soon as it was stopped. It is an expensive drug (even the generic form) and does not provide immediate relief. Another plus (for the parent) is that it is not a controlled substance, so much easier to manage refills and less risk of abuse or sharing/selling. |
Anonymous
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DS was late to take stimulants - Vyvanse at age 16. We are a bit more than a year in and he only takes them on school days, not on holidays or weekends. We've noticed no real difference. His inattentiveness increased in jr high and we wish we'd know he was ADHD combo then as he could have used meds at that point. He also has an extremely high verbal IQ and was in AAP all the way through jr high.
As far as when he's on med breaks, he's grumpy the first day off and then fine but does show some impulsiveness. However being on meds has helped with that and now he seems to self regulate better when he's off them for longer than the weekends - like during summer and school breaks. |
Anonymous
Stimulants are by far the safest, PP. Talk to your psych. |
Anonymous
I've seen studies like that, but most doctors still want to use stimulants first. Perhaps it's because stimulants work faster and have been in use longer. Nine months is loooong time to wait to get the full effect. |
Anonymous
Nine months may be fine to wait if your child has a very mild case of ADHD and can wait that long to get relief, but if that's the case, does your child really need medication at all? For our child, the decision to try medication came because his ADHD was taking a significant toll on his mental health, self-esteem, etc., and counseling/coaching wasn't helping. When you see your child becoming withdrawn/depressed and are worried about the possibility of them hurting themselves, you don't have the luxury of waiting several months for medication to work. |
Anonymous
| If you have ever tried taking a stimulant for a while and then not taking it, you would find that you go through a withdrawal phase - like any drug. As a child when I didn't take my Adderall, I broke my wrist in PE, got sent home from school etc. As an adult, if I don't take it, I can hardly get out of bed and then when I do, I feel like I have a terrible brain fog all day. It goes away after a week or two of not taking it. Is my brain permanently rewired? I don't know but I do know that I can't remember most of my childhood - the incident which led me to the diagnosis, I remember clear as a bell. But after that, it's a bit foggy until I stopped taking the medicine for a while at 18. |
Anonymous
I agree with using stimulants first. My son was on Concerta for two years and it worked like a dream. Then puberty hit and he was violent, crazy rages. Took him off Concerta and he’s back to normal. Now one month in to Straterra and hoping for improved attention at some point. |
Anonymous
Not everyone can use stimulants. Count your lucky stars that your kid can. Be gentle with those who can’t. It’s unfair and inaccurate to say a child may need nothing because he can wait 9 months for Straterra to start working as well as a stimulant. Many people don’t have a choice. |
Anonymous
Strattera is not a sedative, it's related to antidepressants and can help both hyperactivity and focus because it works on the same norepinephrine pathways that stimulants do. It's a good.second line for people who can't take or don't.respond to stimulants. |
Anonymous
I do consider myself lucky that stimulants work for him (and for me, since I have ADHD as well). My comment wasn't directed at situations like yours; of course if nothing else works, you try it and hope for the best. My comment was directed at the top of the quoted discussion where a poster made the blanket assertion that they wouldn't want to try stimulants, and the implication that it would be preferable to wait for long-term improvement from a non-stimulant rather than try something that hopefully would work faster. |
Anonymous
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OP, my son has severe ADHD and also generalized anxiety. A short trial of an extremely low dose of a stimulant was a total failure so, other than a couple trials several years apart, he has never been on stimulants. He is 14 and was diagnosed at age 6.
What I wanted to say is that he has changed a lot, too. In some ways that make life much better for him and in some ways that make life harder. Specifically with regard to attention, though, he used to hyper-focus to an extreme on books, legos, anything he loved. You could stand next to him screaming while he read a book and he might not hear you. He doesn't do that anymore, which is MUCH better for him socially. He can actually have a back and forth conversation, which seemed impossible a few years ago. In the younger years, though, he was very advanced in all academics -- we really did the testing because of his anxiety and social challenges. Now he is much better off in those ways, but looks like a classic inattentive kid with school work! He really struggles to focus, especially when work is very challenging. I think that as kids grow and as the demands around them change, they really do look different. |
Anonymous
Not according to the physician we spoke with. There's a reason they are regulated. He said decades ago they used to say it's as safe as drinking coffee and that just isn't so. Some kids with real ADHD are forming addictions and abusing once on their own in college, etc. There also used to be this myth that only those qwith ADHD respond ideally to stimulants. Not true. Almost all of us would perform better on stimulants and reap benefits. These benefits can last for years on it and then eventually for some there is a point where the stimulants are useless, you have habituated, but you are mess off them and you cannot increase the dose because it's is not safe to do. Good luck getting all the facts. I am impressed with the study someone linked to earlier. It is a big risk to your career to research and try to publish studies that don't support use of meds like stimulants. |
Anonymous
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One more thing this physician mentioned..when you see research studies supporting stimulant use find out who funded it. Also, it is very hard to know what ties the authors have to pharmaceutical companies. They don't always disclose stocks, and other ties.
This physician was not anti meds or even completely anti-stimulants. He just had seen way too many issues in his own practices and in speaking with colleagues. |
Anonymous
Your doctor is in the minority at least as far as pre-adolescent children are concerned. There is a known problem with abuse and diversion in high school and college. There is also a known problem of ADHD teens using illegal drugs or engaging in other risky behaviors. Parents should be aware of the risks and judge whether the benefits outweigh the risks. If someone chooses to go off stimulants, the safest way to do so is to gradually lower the dose under a doctor's supervision. Most adults who took stimulants as children no longer take them, so it is possible to stop without major problems. There are in fact studies on alternatives to stimulants, so I don't see a career risk there. But except for Strattera, they haven't found an alternative to stimulants that is equally effective and safe. |
Anonymous
| What about Intuniv? It is a non-stimulant. Any thoughts about it? Especially for kids who develop tics on the stimulants? |