Experience with Intuniv (guanfacine)?
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Anonymous
| The sleep issues are really bad for us too. It’s pretty common. |
Anonymous
That's too bad. Intuniv has been wonderful for my DS. Amazing how one drug can be so different for different people. |
Anonymous
| Our 10-year-old daughter tried a brief trial as the stimulants were not having enough effect at a low dose and too many side effects when they were increased. Guanfacine wasn't a great option for us either, sadly. She took it at night and even at a fairly low dose it was causing her to fall asleep during the daytime. She also developed terrible constipation. I think some kids (like ours) just don't respond very well to medication or need to have a fairly complicated combination of doses for it to work. Still trying... |
Anonymous
| intuniv added some benefit in combo with a stimulant for DS(7), but caused terrible weepiness. In october, the teacher said he was doing great and they were working on his crying. I said, "crying"??? Yes, apparently he cries about minor things 3 or 4 times a day - wrong line for lunch, took too long to eat his snack, didn't get to finish his art, etc. Teacher said it was not abnormal for his age and nothing to worry about. I said, "my son has literally never cried about anything in his life - he is so easy going". I checked with the teacher from last year -- can't remember a single time he cried the whole school year. Stopped the intuniv. No more crying. Poor kid spent 4 months so sad, and we never even knew about it.... |
Anonymous
|
Intuniv (DS9 taking the generic) has been helpful for us, in combo with SSRI. (We tried it a couple of years ago pre-SSRI and saw the weepiness described by others.) He has to take it right after school - for some reason, that's the time that works for him. Either evening or morning timing seems to prompt night waking. We have not had issues with night terrors, thankfully.
It has made a big difference in managing impulsivity and irritability/agitation. |
Anonymous
|
DC recently started 1 mg of Guanfacine for ADHD (very negative experiences with 2 different stimulant classes) at night and after taking if for a week, like clockwork, seems to have nightmares which entail babbling in sleep, standing in room, etc after about 1.5 - 2 hours of sleep. DC settles quickly when I go into room (immediately upon hearing crying/babbling) and lie next to her in bed and then sleeps through night.
After 2 weeks, we increased the dose to 1 mg at night and 1 mg in morning and the nightmares seem more vivid. It seems others' children have also experienced these nightmares/night terrors. Does changing the full dose to the morning or afternoon seem to help this go away? Have others' children had this experience with clonidine? The Guanfacine does seem to be reducing impulsive behavior issues. Thanks for sharing your experiences. |
Anonymous
| My DS started having trouble sleeping at night (could not fall asleep!) so we switched his full dose (only 1 mg.) to morning and that has helped. I’m thinking switching full dose to morning may help in your situation. |
Anonymous
| As a mental health professional it bothers me to see people arguing over Intuniv and Tenex when both are the same exact drug with the same exact mechanism aside from one being immediate release and one being extended release. They are interchangeable. |
Anonymous
| I disagree. They are not interchangeable if one is extended release and one is not. |
Anonymous
| Anyone see increased energy with the first dose? I was surprised there wasn't any sign of tiredness, etc. |
Anonymous
+1. Impulsivity and irritability significantly reduced with none of the side effects others have described here. DC takes it in the evening, usually with dinner around 6 pm. |
Anonymous
That's what the PP describes, they are not saying it's interchangeable, just same active ingredient so one would expect similar effect both benefit and risk. |
Anonymous
How long before you saw these changes? |
Anonymous
About a week. However, the starting dose was 1 mg which wasn't sufficient. We noticed most of the improvement when the dose was increased to 2 mg but they usually start it at 1 mg. |
Anonymous
| How soon before you went from 1 to 2 mg? |