Going off Strattera | ADHD Information

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 Last week I took my 9 yr old son off Strattera because it seemed to be making him very irritable and we were getting no positive benefits from it.  He is also on a high dose of Focalin 2x day.  Since taking him off the past few days he has been terribly disrespectful, moody, fighting non stop with his brother, and totally unbearable to be around.   Has anyone had these types of side effects with your children coming off the Strattera?  If so, how long did it last?  He can typically be those things (no he is not bipolar) but every negative is to the extreme right now!

Please help!



He weighs approx. 58 lbs.  The Dr. said that if he became irritable on the 25mgs., then increasing to 40 would just make that worse.

Have you had experience with bad effects going off Strattera?


DD had  no bad experiences going off Straterra, but your dr is wrong about dosage. A dfose that is too low or too high WILL cause mood swings irritability etc. His dose should have been between 30 and 45 mgs, then you would have seen results.

Are you using a Psychiatrist( pediatric) or a pediatrician?

He had been on the Strattera ~ 4 mths.  He was on 25mg then we took him back down to 18mg for the last 4 weeks.  Then we stopped cold turkey.  I researched stopping Strattera and the Dr. and everything I read said it was okay to do that. However, they said that with Zoloft too and he had a near psychotic episode even though I tapered it off slowly anyway.  The Focalin is 25XR in the a.m. and 25XR in the p.m. It does not last long at all for him. He must be a fast metabolizer. 

Any help I get is appreciated!

What is his weight? The Straterra dose is 1.2-1.8mgs per kilo(2.2lbs) of body weight, Chances are if it was not ramped properly, and started at 25mgs, then lowered he was not on the right dose and that is why it did not work well for him. And being on it for 4 mos threre is the possibility that since the target dose was never reached he never got tthe full effects of Strat.It takes 4-6 weeks after reaching the target dose to see effectiveness, this includes the ramp period, so total time is anywhere from 6-16 weeks.

For a dose of 25 mgs his weight would have to be somewhere between 45-50 lbs, if he weighs more than that the dose was too low.

edbson39121.3973958333

How long was he taking Straterra? what was the dose, and what is his weight?

what is the Focalin Dose? and did you gradually decrease the Strat or stop cold turkey?