STRATTERA side effects | ADHD Information

Well.. she started me out at 1mg at bedtime, but she admittingly said she wasn't familiar with Tenex (Family Dr). After reading the threads on here I seen that it was better to start slowly so I decided to split the pill in half and do .5mg at night to start, then after 4 days add .5mg in the am. I'm glad I did this or else I think I'd really had been worse then I was today. I'm thinking that maybe I would need a stimulant if the tiredness doesn't subside. I'll wait it out until my next Psych appt on the 25th though. I weigh 190 lb. So 25 mg is indeed a low dose. I could be feeling some sort of a placebo effect. I know that I've felt a mild placebo effect from low-dose antidepressants before (maybe 1/5th of the normal dose). I'm going to have to study the placebo effect. It's fascinating.

I tend to react to any medication with tiredness... When I first started taking double doses of Aleve for my severe menstrual cramps, it would make me tired!--and that's not even a side effect listed on the bottle. In fact, any psychological or physical stress makes me want to sleep more. Heck, by now the expectation that I'm likely to feel tiredness as a side effect may in itself make me tired!

I bet I could be hypnotized really, really easily. I'm SO suggestible.

It makes sense that if I get any side effect from something, it's bound to include drowsiness. What I didn't expect would be that, apparently, the sort of drowsiness I get on Strattera + Caffeine actually makes me a bit more focused, despite the drowsiness reducing my ability to nonmedicated levels. Wonder if caffeine + tiredness alone would have the same effect?

My brain is really, really weird. :)
Ohh.. watch out if you get severe cramps already, Strattera may make them worse as you ramp up. (may not though since it's different for everyone). However it made mine as bad as it was when I was a teen. Doubled over in pain and not able to function. It was that bad until I had my first child.  Like the other's have said, Strattera takes up to 6-8 weeks for full effect and you should be ramping up. Starting out at 25mg is fine, but I've been told by my Dr that 80mg is an 'average' dose. Some need more, some less, and some are just fine on 80. I started out on 40mg, ramped up to 60 for a few weeks and now I'm on 80mg. I've been on it for 7 weeks on Weds.

My problem now is that it was causing my blood pressure to increase, and another Dr started me on Tenex to help combat the bp and to help with the Impulsiveness, Anxiety and other hyper traits that Strattera just isn't helping at all. The Tenex is making me dizzy, and tired. Right now I can't feel any of the Strattera's effect over the Tenex and it's been that way for a couple of days (that time of the month) so I'm assuming that it doesn't help me during that time. Plus it made me cramp severely. I'm going to ask for a script change because it's just not doing it's job anymore so it seems. I'll ride it out until the 25th when I have my next appt. That'll be 10 weeks on it.
shawnB , when Chase started on the tenex(guanfacine) he was dizzy and tired as well.  Did the dr. start you at a low dose and ramp up slowly? After he was on it a week or so (maybe longer?) the dizziness was gone, and now he is tired (needs a nap in the afternoon) on the weekends when I don't give the stimulant.  I am thinking that in the summer, when he is off the stimulant for longer, his system will adjust to the tenex and he will not be so tired... I'm a 23 year old college student with Asperger Syndrome and ADHD (Inattentive). Yesterday was my first day on Strattera, at a dose of 25 mg. I am told this is a low dose.

The effect, in general, is both positive and negative: While I no longer notice everything around me, I am able to focus on the important things. So I am less alert and more focused, a strange combination. My mind has changed from one of those point-and-shoot cameras, where everything is more or less in focus, to one where the focus can change, so that one object stands out and everything else is blurred (but that one object can be in much better focus than with a point-and-shoot camera). It's still not as focused as I can get when I hyperfocus (and apparently I'm incapable of hyperfocusing on this medicine)--but of course, hyperfocusing can't be had for the asking. Wish it were; I'd have a doctorate by now instead of still being an undergrad.

This change would be acceptable to me, if it weren't for another side effect: The reduction in overall alertness seems to be making me more tired. Taking a caffeine pill this morning offset that a bit, but now that it's worn off, I feel a bit "lazy" and "dull". It's as though my IQ went down about twenty points... I'm not nearly as creative.

I'm still capable of a pretty high level of work--as high as without the Strattera--but I don't like this feeling. I'm doing a 30-day trial of the stuff, so if I don't get any results by the end of the month, I'm getting back with my psych and trying something else.

Is there a workaround, like my taking a caffeine pill (I normally drink coffee; but I had no time this morning)? Is it OK to drink coffee throughout the day, to combat this tiredness?

Does your body get used to it, and the tiredness fade, after a while?

Does the effect take a while to get useful, like with a lot of antidepressants? (I used to take Zoloft... that took two months to actually work. I was about ready to chuck the bottle out of the window long before that.)

Or do you just have to live with it?

If you do have to live with it, what's the best way?

Thanks. Callista39174.1411805556

Hi Callista:

I am on Strattera and just started about 9 days ago.  My side effects for the first week was fatigue, dry mouth, and loss of appetite.  After a week of low dose of 40mg, I am now on 80mg.  I do split it up though, taking one 40 mg at night and 40mg during the day.  The side effects are going down.  Last night I didn't have dry mouth and my appetite is returning.  I also felt less tired.   One shouldn't feel any result from Strattera right away.  It takes about a few weeks to a month to work.  I haven't noticed much difference in me yet.  I wonder why you are noticing the change so quickly.

What is your weight?  25mg does sound like a low dose.  But it should be according to your weight.  I am allergic to caffeine so I don't have any experience with caffeine pill.  So to answer your question with my own experience, the tireness will eventually go away.  But it is important to find the right dose for you so that you are not under or over dosed.  Is your doctor going to ramp up your dosage?  Did he or she share with you what the dosage plan will be?  Good luck.

 

Strattera takes 6 weeks AFTER you reach the target dose which is extremely weight dependent and needs to be ramped up to slowly as I understand it. 

If you give up after 1 month, you haven't given it a fair trial.  Once you reach the target dose, the side effects should lessen as your body becomes accustomed to the medicine.......