The doctor prescribed Clonidine for my 12 year old son that has ADHD. He could not tolerate stimulants, we tried everything but Ritlan. It made him depressed, angry and throw fits that lasted 30 min to an hour. Has anyone ever tried Clondine for ADHD and what was your experience with it? Under uses it reads, "medication is used to treat high blood pressure, this medication may also be used to ease withdrawld symptoms associated with the long-term use of narcotics, alcohol and nicotine. May be used to treat migraine headaches, hot flashes associated with menopause, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other condistions determined by your doctor. I have never heard of this med before and I did alot of research on it when he was first diag (age 5). Is it new?
The doc assures me it will not mess with his blood pressure, but from my experience I'm not so trusting of doctors right now. Need your input please!
My son used Clonodine. It made him very sleepy. He laid around like a lump on a log for the first hour or so after taking it. After that he played very nice, and things kept his attention. He just seemed in a trance. He would also get very angry and physical when his meds were about to wear off. I also had a hard time getting him to sleep at night because he turned afraid of the dark, and monsters, and kidnappers, and all kinds of things. I took him off this medicine. My son took .025mg at 130 in the afternoon, to help him through the afternoon. I had to break the pill in to quaterters, which I didnt get very evenly sized pills (I am not too good at that)My psych uses clonidine for adhd but usually only for the kids where sleep is an issue because of the side effects that caggy described. I can tell you that it seems to have no effect on blood pressure for kids. Another drug that is also normally used for blood pressure that is also used for adhd is tenex,(guanficine is the generic name). My psych said that she would rather use that than clonidine because it has much less of the zombie-like side effects. My son is 6 now and is on concerta which wears off after 7 to 8 hours and the evening times are difficult so we are discussing adding the tenex or maybe strattera. Clonidine is very old and you may find more info under its brand name catapres. You also may want to ask about the tenex. My psych is younger and recently graduated so is very in tune to the meds used currently. Meaning she hasn't yet gotten into a rut where every child gets the same meds regardless of the issues that remains.My son has Tourette's Syndrome with inattentive ADHD, and was prescribed clonidine, primarily to alleviate his tics, (nothing takes them away completely). The neurologist also believes that clonidine helps with ADHD symptoms.
In our case, I am not convinced that it has helped much with my son's ADHD, (his is a fairly significant case), and am going to pursue Strattera, which is a non-methamphetamine stimulant. While the clonidine does provide some relief for my son's tics, he does get sleepy after a dose. This tendency does decrease over time, depending upon the amount given. You may want to see if your child can tolerate the Catapress patch, because it delivers a steady stream of the medication, opposed to pill form which "spikes", (thus maybe more difficulty with the side effect of being sleepy, but I'd ask the doctor specifically about that).
My oldest son has ADHD. Ritalin worked great for him as far as helping him to focus, get good grades and improved his hyper behaviors and tendency to argue. However it did give him an anxious feeling. We have recently switched to Straterra. While the verdict is still out, (because it takes a couple of weeks for it to kick in), he does seem to be doing well so far.
My son is taking Tenex because he has Tourette's, ADHD, and quite possibly OCD cosidering his current behaviour. The Tenex seems to work well in diminishing the tics and making him pay attention. The best medication my son has been on for adhd has been Ritalin but it made the tics worse. I did not notice any tics until he had been on Ritalin for 8 months. He did have a period of throat clearing before being diagnosed with adhd that the Dr. said might be a tic. The only side effect of Tenex is drowsiness. We will have to wait and see how this school year goes in order to determine if the Tenex will continue to work well with him.
A helpful website for different meds(even for adhd) is www.tourettessyndrome.com or .org
My youngest son, 4 yrs, was prescribed Clonidine (.1mg) due to the fact that we could not get him to sleep. He'd literally lie awake for hours upon hours before falling asleep (I'm talking about a 4 yr old still WIDE awake at midnight at some points!), and once he did, he'd wake up 2-3 times (at least) a night, making him oh so cranky for (pre) school the next day. (not to mention we were cranky, too!)
With the Clonidine, we give him one approx 30 mins before bedtime, with his dinner. It works so well for him, and doesn't render him unconscious or whatever, ie: he still gets up and goes to the bathroom in the night when he needs to, stuff like that. He awakes refreshed and alert, and doesn't seem to have any side effects at all. At this point, I honestly don't know what I'd do without it! He'll actually come to me and tell me, "Mommy, I'm ready to go to bed"......!!!!!!!
Oh, and he's adhd, and taking low dosages of Ritalin, if that helps.
PJ
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