New here with med’s question(m) | ADHD Information
I'm Tina with 9y.o. Brandon. He's been on Strattera for over a year now but the last 4 months or so he's gotten really bad. Failing 3 classes(and probably 4th grade) up out of his seat in class,unattentive...all the old stuff we're no longer used to.(lol)
Anyway, I called the Dr. and she wants him to keep taking the Strattera and add Concerta. (Gotta go pick up the script today.) Doesn't that seem wierd? Is anyone else's kids(or self) on 2 different meds? He's already on 40 mg. of Strattera. I just didn't know they'd put them on more than one med at a time.
Thanks for any responses.
Yes, I have seen the combination of a stimulant with straterra or an anti-d. My niece has had good results with Concerta. I guess the benefit of straterra is that it may help some when the stim wears off, and the meds may help together during the day. we're just starting the same combination but for aggression. anyone with any experience of this please let me know how you got on.Brandon's got aggression problems at home but not school. Maybe it'll help the at home agression too then. Thanks to you both. jobranmom38833.4200578704My stepson has just gone through a similar change and I wanted to mention that you make sure to watch his emotional side effects as you try both drugs.We have full-time custody of my stepson and have been searching for ways to control his ADHD for a few years. He has been on concerta for just over a year, trying different doses, with minimal amounts. The doctor decided we should try a different approach and try strattera.
Concerta is a stimulant, while strattera is a non-stimulant so this can be quite a major change for some.
The doctor did not want him to quit concerta completely for this change. He gave us a small 10mg dose of strattera for him to take every morning with his regular concerta.
The first day was terrible. He seemed fine in the morning and when he came home for lunch. When he left after lunch to walk back to school, he kept on walking. He tried running away. The school made a huge mistake by not calling me to let me know that he wasn't there. An ambulance actually found him walking on the highway, picked him up and took him to the police. A police officer brought him home late that afternoon. Thank goodness for me, that officer also has a son who is ADHD and she understood completely when I explained that it was his first day on new medication.
He was crying hysterically. Said he didn't really want to run away but once he had made it to the highway he didn't know how to just turn around and come home. He said he was upset because he felt like nobody believed that he was trying to be good.
This is a child who normally can't stay upset for an entire 30 seconds. No matter how much trouble he is in or how upset he gets, he's always his old happy self within a minute or two. This day however, he cried for nearly 3 hours straight.
The next couple of days he wasn't depressed, but he said he felt very angry. He didn't have any tantrums or fights, but he kept saying he was scared because he wanted to hit somebody. The doctor told me all of this was normal and it would pass.
And it did pass. After about 10 days of both drugs, he stopped the concerta and we tried an 18mg dose of strattera. There was minimal improvement, so he now takes 28mg of strattera and we are finally seeing some changes - for the better.
Please just keep an eye on your son as depression seems to be a major side effect here. Hope this is going to work for you!
Concerta is a stim. Straterra is an SSRI antidepressant. Straterra's side effects profile include moodswings and can cause aggression in kids prone to mood disorders. Actually, so can stimulants. Be careful. Keep a good eye on him. Straterra takes about 6-8 weeks to kick in. OlderMom38838.6290162037
Well..Can't tell how the Concerts/Strattera combo is working because we're waiting for the Dr. to convince the insurance company to decide he needs it. 
I realize this should be under a insurance heading but wanted to post an update and my thanks to all posters. If we ever get the okay I'll let you know how it goes.
new to this site so have spent quite a bit of time looking at old posts from other people who seem to know so much about the medication journey. My adhd diagnosed son (and having read other posts who knows if this may be something else?) has gone from ritalin to concerta with additions and removals along the way. The strattera dose presently is subtherapeutic, but concerta has in the past always been really good. The problem we are looking at is the concerta wearing off in the afternoons and the need to get as good containment in the afternoons as in the mornings. So far the strattera seems to have improved the tigger like features before meds are given in the morning, and I should say that the strattera is given at night. Biggest problem however is what others in posts refer to as meltdowns and what I have called aggression. These are prompted by frustration usually by adult intervention (not always appropriate adult intervention, and usually physical restraint).
Some ASD traits mainly in misreading social clues and seeing things in very black and white terms.
Above everything else the concern is to obtain all day cover to avoid afternoon meltdowns. Any one with good advice/experiences please let me know
Mel