Clonidine and Concerta Combo | ADHD Information

My DS (9yrs) has been on concerta for 2 years now. He is taking 54 mg. The concerta is great but it did not help his impulsiveness. The doctor perscribed clonidine.
1/2 of tablet in the morning and another 1/2 of tablet at lunch time. He did not need it to sleep because he sleeps very good.

His been on the combo (clonidine and concerta) for about a month and I notice that he has become more defiant and pulling his hair. He never used to do this.

I have placed a call into the doctor to see what we can do for him.

Have any of you experienced this with the concerta/clonidine combo?

I just don't know what his causing his behavior to be so bad.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Gina My son was on Concerta and Clonidine. It seems that if the dose of concerta was too high, he would obsessively clean his nails and scalp saying that it felt like sand in his hair and nails. The doc said it was not an uncommon response. We changed the dosage with success.

My son has been on Concerta for a couple years.  We recently started Clonidine to help him get a good nights sleep since he has to get up so early for school.

We have been very pleased so far with the Clonidine and I think we could back down his Concerta because he is much calmer with enough sleep. 

Please do not stop clonidine suddenly ... it needs to be tapered because of blood pressure effects.

The combo has been proven safe and effective by the Tourette Syndrome Study Group ... has your son been evaluated for OCD ??

 

     Maybe the dose of Concerta needs to be lowered a bit since they added a new med along with it.  My daughter used to take 30mg of Adderall XR and they tried strattera alone, the Strattera didn't help with concentration but did better with the hyper than the Adderall did, so she is on a low dose of both, mixed together they work great, but you have to find the right amount. 

My daughter takes 36 mg of Concerta and 0.1 of clonidine to help her sleep at night. She hasn't had any side of effects with this combo and has been on both of them together since early April. I would stop giving the clonidine altogether since he didn't start this behavior before taking it, at least until the next doctor appt. My daughter had many meds before Concerta and if any of them made her out of control (in a sense) I immediately stopped administrating them to her until I could see the doctor. I feel that it's best to do that. I hope things get better for you and your son. I hate to see children suffering, especially through the early years. It's hard enough to be a kid. :-)