adderal was nasty on my daughter, she became very mean on it. it truly was hard to tell whether it was the med that was causing the outrages and meanness/changed personality OR if it was just a side effect of her not sleeping well on adderal, she didn't fall asleep until almost midnight, she was averaging 7 hours a sleep a night, not enough. we switched and we are much happier on ritalin LA. she sleeps and she's doing really well:) :) :)
are his pupil's dialated as well? my daughters were and she looked horrible on adderal. when we upped it from 5 mg to 10 she then hyperfocused...it was not a good time for our family.
i'd check into another med...but that's just my 2 cents. i know that many say that you need to give it time. and your son's only been on it 5 days...just monitor him closely and do what's best for him and your family:)
keep us posted! i know that our pediatrician has many sucess stories with adderal, it's just not the right med for everyone!
shelley
Ohhhhhhhh yeah. I know all about the Adderall fits. When my dd took Adderall she would have horrible fits. Once she scratched her brothers face up in on of her rages. We had to put her back on Focalin but we still had problems with aggression. She is now on Concerta 27mg, Tenex 1mg, and Lexapro 5mg, and is doing much better. No rages in the last couple of weeks. It has been very nice not having to deal with the fits. I would recommend asking your Dr. about trying something else. This may not be the right fit for your son. Don't lose hope. We have all had a meltdown to deal with from time to time and it is no picnic. I find this board to be a wonderful tool in helping me understand more about my daughters needs. You will find a great support system here. Wonderwoman39183.7046875I haven't had this problem. In general, I would just say that if the meds are producing side effects you can't tolerate, time to change meds.Have you watched him on it on a weekend yet? It could be that he is fine
Adderall hated my son! He became psychotic and it last about 2 hrs in front of the pediatrician. As of that moment, he NEVER took that med again.
Concerta is better for him!
I would stop the adderall immediately.
Best wishes!
Beth
We also had a really negative experience with Adderall back in 3rd grade when my son was 8. It made him extremely sad, anxious, moody, etc. Very very irritable. We were on a 14 day trial and stopped the trial on day 5. It was such a scary reaction, we refused to try another stimulant until 5th grade. He suffered because of our ignorance of the meds.....we didn't realize every stimulant is different and trial and error was the only way we were going to find a better med. He's now on Concerta.....and it is much smoother for him.
Adderall is great for some kids......but not mine! Okiemom
Adderall was horrible for my son as well. He was mean. Two other friendsI am starting to believe that his rages are happening when the medicine wears off. Yesterday was a lot better though. He is on 10mg. The medicine is wonderful except for the rages. He is doing excellent in school now. We have already tried focalin xr and strattera. Focalin was horrible and stattera was not strong enough. I speak to the doctor and if she says it is okay to give it to him twice a day, this may solve my problem.
You probably won't want to give the XR version twice a day, but a short acting adderall at the right time will ease the rebound when the med is leaving the body. If you can watch for when the mood starts to change...and give a short acting pill about half an hour or so before that, then it will be a smoother transition. Speak to your doctor, hopefully he can help you to regulate things to make your son more comfortable on the med.
My son has been on Adderall and Effexor for about two weeks now. We have also seen a change in his attitude/behavior first thing in the morning and later afternoon. He gets really mean and says things to us like, "shut-up, I hate you!" Is that the type of thing your child does during his/her temper tantrum? We weren't sure if it was the Adderall, the Effexor, or something else. We've already tried Concerta with no luck. We were hoping that the Adderall would be our answer. I do feel better, though, knowing that he isn't the only one who gets so mean! Has anyone found anything to help with the focusing in class other than Adderall or Concerta?
My 6 year old son is on Adderall XR. He's been on Adderall of some sort since he was diagnosed 2 years ago. He's always done really well on it. My son doesn't have tantrums, but he does on occassion have a meltdown as I call it. One thing upsets him and it starts a domino effect. Before you know it he's crying and carying on, can't get calmed down. Lasts about a half hour to 45 mins. But, it isn't often.
However, he did have one today. He fell down the stairs, hurt his back and then it just went down hill from there...He was hungry, didn't know what he wanted to eat, he was crying and just generally inconsolable. He kept asking over and over and over what we had to eat and was not happy with anything we had so he just kept asking like I was going to pull out a magic wand and suddenly what he wanted would appear. The he starts in on other things that are bothering him. And it's at these times, if something can go wrong, everything will. Sometimes, ADHD'ers are just mentally exhausting! Whew!
I would agree with everyone about the "mean mood". My son tends to be in a bad mood as the medication wears off, but he isn't aggressive. He just seems to be short tempered and impatient. By 7:00pm his meds are completely out of his system.
I'm going back to see the doctor next week. The doctor told me if we had too many problems on the XR he was going to try something completely different. My concern is mostly school. The XR helps him fantastically at school. Teacher was amazed at how better behaved and on task he was since starting. It's just that it doesn't last long enough at home and the last few hours are absolute torture some days.
Ritalin LA works very well for Chase, though it is not made to last as long as the adderall or the concerta, it lasts through the school day and till about 6....Chase has no rebound issues so it is difficult to say when it wears off in the evening.
Chase took concerta for almost a year, and much prefers the release of the ritalin LA...his quote, "You say that this medicine is the same kind as the concerta? Well, I like it MUCH better!"
Since the adderall is working so well except for the rebound time, why don't you ask the doc for something for rebound....a short acting form of adderall taken just before the impatience and stuff starts should help with the rebound.....
chasesmom7939186.274375Oh I can't wait for the day when my son is aware enough to tell me howYes I know how lucky I am that my guy is so self aware.....he is a huge part of his own treatment plan....when we were at the med check the other day the ped asked him what we were going to do for the meds this summer...last summer Chase wanted to remain on them, so we did....this summer he wants to be off of them....he is mainly inattentive, but has some minor aggression/anger issues (and has since birth!!) so we will be continuing the guanfacine for the summer and stopping the ritalin LA, at least for a trial. The doc says that if Chase has social issues or defiance issues off the ritalin, we can start it back up.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can go the summer stim free!