tenex/drowsiness | ADHD Information

We just got up and my daughter is already ready to go back to sleep . Oh yeah she'll make it through her day!

Love to know if you get past this..............we've had "sleepy" issues always when not on a stim, part of our problem..............the Tenex may be a bust for us too. Hope not she is quite calm and relaxed................

But enjoy the quiet and getting food in her while you can! Thats' my thought, we have so mnay that keep her up and decrease appetite.

Well, she woke up on her own (which is good, because I forgot to set my alarm last night, and DH is out of town for work).  She seems okay, but I haven't given her the morning dose yet!  She does not want to go to school, so that's fun to work with in the morning. 

Since Chase has been on the guanfacine, he also is harder than he already was to get going in the morning...and he is also in "not wanting to go to school" mode, but once he is up and dressed, he usually is fine. On the weekends, I let him sleep until about 10 if he wants to before waking him to give his meds. He is the type that once he is up, there is no falling back to sleep, but some children could probably go back to sleep after taking the meds.

I really hope that this med will be all that Chase needs for the summer for much needed weight gain....

My 6 YO DD started on Tenex--1/2 mg. last night, 1/2 mg. this morning.  She is taking only Tenex right now, no stimulants.  She fell asleep in school.  They called me to come pick her up, and when I got there, she had fallen asleep on the floor in the office.  I knew it would make her sleepy, but I didn't get that it would make her unable to stay awake, so I was surprised. 

If your child takes Tenex, how long did the drowsiness last?  The psychiatrist told me to email him w/ an update on Thursday, so I'm hoping it's just a couple of days of drowsiness--I guess I will keep her home tomorrow. 

I think this is totally normal, but wanted to check in before emailing the psychiatrist again. 

I had to pick my daughter up from school yesterday for falling asleep in math. She has been on Tenex for several weeks and still falls asleep about 7 hours after she takes it. I cut her back to 1/4 tablet today. she was VERY sleepy in the beginning right after taking it, now it seems to happen 7-8 hours later. I am hoping the smaller dose will help.

Diane, I was hoping you were online! Thanks.  I hope the drowsiness wears off for DD--I thought it wouldn't last forever.  I wonder if it makes a difference if it's in combination w/ stimulants.  I can't remember what your daughter takes. 

Oh yeah it does! I had a meltdown this weekend and said NO MORE STIMS. So anyway I sent her to school with 1/2 of a .1 mg Guanfacine and no Ritalin.................boy she coudnt do that one. Today I cut the half in half, no call so she must;ve made it. I decided if shes too tired I'll give her a PEPSI for her lunch tomorrow see if that gets her by. We just started the Desipirimine yesterday so we have to build, it will take a few weeks. I couldnt torture her with the Ritalin for another day. She was a mess. The tics were BAD and the Guanfacine only helped inconsistently. Plus she was anxious and driving me nuts with the "I'm bored". Happens when the Ritalin isnt working. so I just stopped it and called her doc.

She really did get past that early sleepiness after a few days though, you might be ok. My daughter is super sensitive to all the meds.

I was fortunate that Chase started the tenex on Christmas break, so he had adjusted to it by the time he went to school...10 days later....he still gets sleepy if he has no stim...but the ped assures me that it will wear off once he is off the stim for the summer and his body adjusts.

We started exactly the same. She was doing ok on that in conjunction with the Ritalin. I have stopped the Ritalin and maybe after she's off it for a few days we could go back up. I think in my case if she is ok on the 1/4 why not just stick with it. 

masd, you really wont know until you try it for a few days.

We had no stim today and went to 1/4 of .1 guanfacine and she did ok. I am keeping her that during the day. Keep us updated, I'm curious how she does the rest of the week.

My child started guanfacine (generic for Tenex) last weekend.  The dr. told me to do just the nighttime dose for the 1st week and see how he's doing.  Then, add the morning dose if he's not tired.  If we see he's very tired when we start the morning dose, we should 1/2 the regular dose for one week and then try the recommended dose.  I hope that wasn't too confusing.  Dr. eventually recommends 1/2 mg at night and 1/2 mg in the morning.  We're doing only nighttime dose now, and next week we'll try 1/2 mg, but we might do 1/4 mg for a bit until his body adjusts.

I'm planning on sticking with it, just wanted to know how long she'll be incapacitated.  We happened to have her 6 YO well check today, and her pediatrician (who worked with us on the ADHD from March to last week, when we finally got in to see the child psychiatrist) suggested we go down to 1/4 mg. tonight and tomorrow morning and back up to 1/2 mg. tomorrow night. 

Sad, but we were both laughing--she's completely loopy and groggy AND still manages to be moody and defiant.  It's a winning combination!    

I am glad we had the appointment today--her pediatrician noted that if he had gotten an email from me about this, he would have believed me, but wouldn't have understood exactly how out of it DD is.  I emailed the psychiatrist to tell him what the pediatrician suggested (they work together regularly), so we'll see what he says.  If I don't hear back from him, I'm going to assume he didn't read the email yet and give her 1/4 mg as suggested by the pediatrician.  She only started it last night, so I don't think it should matter that much. 

I'm interested also to see what Vickie has to say--I know lots of you have been using Tenex/guanfacine for a long time.

 

We started with a night dose, then added a day dose, increasing by 1/2mg increments (night first for a few days) every 3 or 4 days. She is on a stim on the weekdays but not the weekend and we have not seen daytime sleepyness. We had her on guanfacine alone for about 6 weeks and the first week, she was a little tired but that did not last too long. This is very individual, my daughter is on 2mg AM and 2mg PM, with an extra 1/2mg some afternoons.

I hope you can get the dose worked out.

"Sad, but we were both laughing--she's completely loopy and groggy AND still manages to be moody and defiant.  It's a winning combination!    "

Too funny...

The psychiatrist agrees--so I will give her 1/4 mg morning and evening for the next 4 days, then go up to 1/2 if she's not as sleepy.  He said that if she is still sleepy, the Tenex is a bust for her and we go back to the drawing board.  Ugh. 

So for tonight I have a boozy brat with the munchies. 

DD seems to be very sensitive to meds.