Hi,
I need some advice please. I have a 6 year old who is severly hyperactive and also has a speech delay among other things. He is on medication already: concerta, risperdol, trileptal and clonidine. We have tried the clonidine pills and have to give them to him every three hours. They seem to wear off after an hour and a half so he is constantly on a rollercoaster. We have him on the clonidine patch now and that is great but he is having an allergic reaction to the adhesive so we are going to have to stop that. We dont want to put him back on the pills because he can not control himself on them, it is like he is crawling out of his skin, he cant sit still is extremely impulsive and does not sleep at night. Our behavioral pedeatrician has mentioned tenex before and our older son takes that but he is not nearly as hyper or impulsive as gregory. Could tenex work to control the hyperactivity, impulsiveness and sleep and not make my poor child feel like he has no control over himself. We are really at our wits end here. There in not much more we can do and he is maxed out on meds for his age and is still off the wall. Thanks for the help.
Teri
Short answer: Yes.
Tenex (guanfacine) is used for hyperactivity, impulsiveness, defiance, calming, sleep and weight issues. It is like clonidine but is longer acting and less sedating. Later this year, Shire will have a longer acting form of it out for ADHD as well. My daughter is on concerta and guanfacine and is doing really well. The guanfacine is great for everything except school focus (helps, but is not enough), and the comination is great for her. The guanfacine is supposed to have a half life of 12-18 hours, but is only effective for ADHD behaviors 6-8 hours. This can vary due to the rapid metabolism of kids.
My daughter (10yo, 60lbs) takes 2mg in the AM and 2mg in the PM, with the option of a 1/2mg after school (or take one of the 1mg evening pills) for times when she has a socially active after school schedule planned.
The doctor had us start the dose at 1/2mg at night and increase to 1mg in 4 days. Then, we split the dose between AM and PM (to make sure she did not have the sedating effects). We then increased by 1/2mg every 3-4 days, first adding it at night, then for the AM dose. The doctor let us cusomize the med for my daughter's needs within guidelines he set. You need to watch for signs of low blood pressure with each increase (my daughter had no side effects, other here have had some side effects), and do not stop suddenly.
I can post some good articles on guanfacine if you would like.
vickie39091.7531828704Guanfacine Articles:
http://www.peacehealth.org/kbase/topic/detail/drug/hw164961/ detail.htm
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&ST ORY=/www/story/11-16-2006/0004476568&EDATE =
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/549974?rss
vickie39091.7625347222Hi Vickie,
That would be great if you could post some articles. I only have my older son to go by but he is almost 90 lbs and takes 3 mg a day. I am not sure how much Gregory could get per day being 55lbs but he would need enough to slow him down a huge deal. Thanks again for the info.
Teri