Reply to How long to know if anxiety is related to adhd meds?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DS is 8 and has been on Adderall for a couple years with good results.  At some point last year, he started having some greater irritability and defiance, and some other quirks, which are probably anxiety related.  We know that stimulants can bring out underlying anxiety in predisposed kids so we're wondering if the Adderall is the trigger here, or if it's just plain old anxiety.

We've tried some other stimulants, but the anxiety was the same (and those other meds were less of a good fit for DS's adhd).  I hate to have to spend 6 months trying all the stimulants at different dosages, potentially chasing a perfect med that doesn't exist (i.e., what if all stimulants cause the anxiety? Or what if the anxiety isn't stimulant-caused? In either case, no stimulant will do better for DS than Adderall).  We could try intuniv, but it takes a while to kick in.

Instead of testing every other med, it seems like the easier solution is to take DS off Adderall for a period of time and see what happens.  We've tried for a weekend, and think we still seen the anxiety.  Maybe we need to try for longer?  How long does he need to be off all stimulants before we can tell if the anxiety is triggered by them versus just regular anxiety?  [/quote]

We took our DC off his stimulant medications for the summer and it's been terrific so far. He is ASD/ADHD (impulsive) and also takes Lexapro (for the anxiety). We had been seeing increases in irritable and aggressive behavior and wondered if it was associated with the stimulant. Without them, he is MUCH more even, and engages better with peers. This summer hasn't been without bumps, but we're now optimistic that we can keep the stimulant (Vyvanse) at bay when school begins again.

Your question was about timing. While we saw changes immediately, wasn't until 8-10 days out that we saw a new pattern of behavior. There was some increased edginess as his body got used to NOT being on the stimulant (day 2-7 or so). Are you taking a vacation at all this summer? Any bigger block of time where you can look and see? It was a game changer for us, realizing that anxiety was driving A LOT of the behavior we'd been seeing and that the stimulants were exacerbating it. [/quote]

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