Zombie | ADHD Information

My 9 year old son has been on Concerta for 9 months for his ADHD. For the
most part, the meds do help him to focus and not be so impulsive.
However, the drawback we are finding is that my son walks around in a
zombie sort of state, acting tired, sick and plain disinterested in everything,
once the meds are in his system. My pediatrician says this is not a side
effect of the drug but rather my son probably has issues of clinical
depression. I find it curious that he does not act this way prior to taking his
meds. Am I over simplifying this to say there is a connection between his
meds and over subdued behavior? Last week we made the switch from
Concerta to Adderall and still find him to have lethargic behavior once on
meds. Has anybody ever experienced this?

Hi- my 9 yr. old son is on Metadate CD 30mg.  I definately notice a sense of lethargy when he's on the meds.  In fact, his teacher just e-mailed me and said that he was acting really tired yesterday..  It seems like a catch 22- we want them to be not hyper, and not zombie like...the school complains when they are hyper,and we get notes when they aren't..  I wonder if there is a happy medium?

I hope you don't mind my two cents worth... I'm just  a firm believer in counseling.  My son goes at least once a month and is doing very well.  I contribute this to the medicine and his counseling session/ play therapy.

I understand that medicine can cause these symptons however my first thing I would check on is the possibility of counseling.  Your doctor may be on to something.  If you have EAP/Employee Assistance Program you can usually receive at least 3 visits free of costs.  My EAP gives each family member 6 a year.  Good luck in finding what is best for your son. 

Hi and welcome to the medication roller-coaster.  My dd also tried Concerta, and she also had behavior that looked like she was depressed when she was on it.  She was withdrawing from everything and also getting very emotional and it was really scary.  At the time, we really didn't know what was going on.  We switched her to Ritalin LA and after a few weeks, she was more herself.  So I think your doctor may be wrong.  The medicine could be making him depressed.  That was our experience anyway.  Also, since this period was so scary, we started counseling with a psychologist.  That was helpful for dh and I especially.  HTHthe zombie like symptoms was why i was so against meds in the first place, however my doc says that if he is aware that a child is like that he tells the parents  up front that he's changing the  dosage of the meds. If the parents refuse then he no longer sees them as a patient and they have to find another doc. he states the meds are not designed to zombie them but rather to calm them so that they can function normally both at school, and home. hope this helps.Thank you all for the responses. It's good to find other people with similar
experiences. I don't ever feel good after leaving the pediatrician's office
relative to adhd matters. I don't ever feel an abundance of support or
information.

Also, we're on day 3 of no meds for Christmas break. We've seen no signs
of depressed behavior (which seems to prove my point that's it's medication
related) but what a disaster these days have been without meds. It seems
like we either have an impulsive, defiant, easily distracted child or an over
subdued lackluster kid. It's discouraging to think there is no middle ground.