Negative side effects of meds | ADHD Information

My ds is on his 2nd month of Daytrana 10 mg.  Without the meds, he is hyper and impulsive (extremely short temper, hitting himself and his brothers with whatever is laying close by, bad name calling, etc.).  He doesn't seem to be able to control his actions.  But he is always the "happy go lucky" little guy.  While on his meds, he is a lot calmer and more focused.  The trade off is that he is over critical of his actions, overly hard on himself (I've noticed more hairpulling out of frustration).  It is harder to get him to do things, he is very picky.  He is very emotional about everything.  Don't get me wrong, he still plays and has fun.

My view changes day to day.  One day I'll want to take him off the medication so I don't give it to him the next day.  After that day, I'm up bright and early putting that patch on him!

I know that you try to find the right medication with the fewest side effects, but when do you change the medications?  I've mentioned this to the doctor, but he wanted to continue with the Daytrana another month.

Any advice would be appricated!
Michelle

luvmy4boys,

Do you think the patch is working at all? I have learned that it takes between 2-3 hours to kick in. Plus 10 mgs is low. You may need to increase it or try another med.

We tried the patch for a few HOURS. The doctor wanted me to put 2 patches on. I guess if you want to increase you can also double up on the patches, however, I really wonder how that would affect the skin rash that most seem to get from the patch. I would never double up on the patches without a doctor's permission!!

Call the doc and discuss either increasing or changing. I feel the patch is very new and they are still perfecting it.  A lot of insurances won't cover it YET.

I wonder if concerta would help your son, it is in the same family as daytrana?!
Just a thought!

Beth

I completely understand your feelings on your view changing day to day. Been there. Part of it is trying to realize the meds wont make everything perfect and that not everything that happens is caused by the meds. I always have hard time dsorting all that out. That said, a couple of things. vicie is right, if you some co-xisting things going on, quite often stimulants can exacerbate THAT situation. My daughter has anxiety and this always increases when on stimulants.  Also know that you can trust your gut, it is usually right. If he is not happy and you dont think he is right, ask for a change, you can always go back to what you are doing. We have recently made that choice. I made a 6 month change back to stimulant drugs due to side effects of sleepiness and not the best focus, but now 6-7 months later rememer why I went off stimulants for us, we are switching back to our old treatment. Stimulants fortunately are in and out of your sytem that day and you can switch. Unlike the tricyclic antidepressants we doing which take weeks. . Start taking notes this month and just dot down behaviors. You wont remember if/when you switch, how he was on the Daytrana. Good luck it is quite frustrating.Is it posible the he has a co-existing anxiety or OCD tendencies that are being unmasked or made worse with the stimulant? My youngest has always been a little OCD, but luckily the meds did not make it worse.

Michelle,

I understand what you are saying about the Daytrana patch.  My son without the patch  was extremely carefree, happy and silly.  However his ability to perform in class was very limited.  With the patch he was also much harder on himself.  On one hand I attributed this to decreased impulsivity (he began thinking about the consequences of his actions) but on the other hand I missed my happy go lucky guy.  I did however stick it out with the meds and six months later he is much happier overall.  I believe this is primarily because he is finally experiencing success in the classroom due to improved focus.   Now that he has gotten accustomed to that success he has begun to ease up on himself.  And when able to on weekends and during the summer we let him go without the patch. 

I know its hard to watch the changes they go through, but my advice is to give it a bit of time.  Things may very well improve.

Good Luck,

NancyG