Focalin & side effects of meds? | ADHD Information

My son, 8 yrs old has been on Concerta and now Focalin since he was 6.  He is doing okay on the Focalin, although it seems not quite as good as when he first started 6 months ago and he is on 20 & 5 mg xr in the a.m. and 5 mg late afternoon.  Has anyone had their children on a dose similar to that and how have they done long term?  Also, my son is absolutely out of control when he wakes up in the morning and most of the time late evening after it's worn off.  He sings and yells in a silly way on top of his lungs and can't seem to stop himself.  He will laugh at us when we try to discipline him and is physically out of control.  You can discipline him one minute and the next he is back to his ridiculous ways. He has been waking up either in the middle of the night or very very early every morning for the past few months. It is impossible to be around him and he turns to whole house into upheavel with his annoying ways, loud mouth, and disrespectful behavior.  We are very strict and consistent parents, but we find he is totally unteachable and unreachable until his medicine kicks in.  By that time we are exhausted and we have a hard time emotionally switching from having a little monster to having a nice little boy who is quick to ask forgiveness and obey.  He has always been out of control before we started him on meds but I can't help but wondering if because he's on the meds, it makes him even worse when he's not on them (and it's not just our perception).  Maybe something to do with how the meds work.  Has anyone else experienced this with their kids or is my son instead of learning to control himself better as he gets older, is just getting worse as he gets older?   Please help..... we're desperate!
thanks for the info. that helps
toni cI am an adult that took Focalin XR for a while.  My experiences with it were not good.  It's dosed differently that Adderall XR...with adderall, you get half immediately and half four hours later.  With Focalin XR, you get one-third immediately and the other two-thirds are administered slowly into your system over the course of the day. I don't think you get enough in the morning, as my mornings were sluggish on Focalin.  But by the afternoon, you would get this big blast and feel on top of the world for a few hours.  But when that wore off...WATCH OUT!  I turned into the "B"  from hell!  I don't know what it was about Focalin and I even tried adjusting the dose a few times but it just didn't work well for me.  I thought this might be helpful to y'all since kids sometimes can't tell you exactly what they're feeling, they just know they dont' feel good.  My thoughts on Focalin being somewhat of a problem is the the way it's dosed, but that's just my opinion.  Good luck!

Joshsammom: