I have to say I was surprised by the response to Foculin XR. It is supposed to have less than normal side effects since they took out all the nasty fillers that cause them. Those same fillers are still found in some of the other meds.
My son has been on it for 1 year now and we have had no problems. We did have difficulty with behavior but implimented the token system and now, he is an absolute ANGEL!!!!!!!!!!! Is it possible your child has an underlying diagnoses you are not aware of?
JoyC--I have heard of children taking a short-acting ritalin in the morning to jump-start the Datrana patch. Maybe you could try that.
lildot--Sorry no experience with Focalin. Perhaps you should ask his dr to try a different med. Maybe Focalin is not for him. Sometimes a med will change the child's personality for the worse. That happened for my dd on Concerta. We changed meds and the issue went away.
My daughter (age 8) was taking focalin (20 XR-am & 10 pm). She too gets angry and violent with me. She was on focalin for almost a year, and I dreaded every morning and every evening with her. She wakes up in a horrible mood and gets wall-climbing wild in the evening. She would throw things at me and refuse to do things at home. She has bitten, kicked and slapped me. I was to the point that I looked forward to Monday morning when I could be at work rather than evenings and weekends at home with her. We are now trying Daytrona patch, so far she seems better in the evening, but the teachers are not happy. The patch takes about 2 hours to kick-in. We have only been taking the patch for four days. I have a call into her dr. to see if we can up the doseage. She is on 15 mg. She was on Adderal prior to Focalin but she developed picking problems and had to be taken off Adderall. I never really considered Focalin the cause of her anger, but when I now think about it... she was never really that angry prior to taking it. The past few years have been such a blurr and so frustrating that just getting through each day is a blessing, and when she behaves it is a joyous event!we've seen absolutely no side effects from folcalin xr
we are also doing a nutritional diet of low carbs and high protein recommended by the doctor
both together a blessing for our son :-)
We just started on Focalin XR Saturday. Sat and Sunday went pretty well. Monday and Tuesday he developed a tendency to be very loud/yelling at school, and the nights were very bad - he was either very hyper stimulated or hyper focused. Then Wed he did very well at school, and at home at night. He had pretty good school days today, and did well tonight until about 1/2 hour before bed - he became very agitated and upset and aggressive with me. I just couldn't settle him down. So, dad went in, and he got him in bed. When I went in to hug him he said "mom, I am sorry I was crabby and angry with you" and was so sweet.
We are hoping that this is just a transitional thing, and that once his body gets used to the meds and we get the right dosage that he will do well.
Good luck to all of you.