The only thing I notice when the guanfacine is out of his body (late afternoon) is that he is more quick to argue with his brother.
I am seriously considering asking the doc about a small dose at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon to alleviate this.
If giving guanfacine alone, what happens as the guanfacine wears off? Do you see a return of typical ADHD behaviors or do you see rebound ADHD symptoms? I am just trying to figure out if guanfacine can have the same rebound effect on behavior as stimulants?
We see doc tomorrow about summer. We will be deciding if dd should try guanfaine alone for the summer to control behavior or go with no meds at all (which is so hard). By taking her off her stimulant, we hope to return to a lower dose that will be effective in the fall and just don't want to interfere with that by adding guanfacine. Any thoughts?
Thanks to all. I am learning so much from these boards!
We never saw rebound when on guanfacine alone. She just slowly returned to hyperactive, impulsive and arguementative (when cousins are over).
Instructions from my kids' doc include: Keep the daily total the same day to day and not vary by more than 1/2mg. Because of the long 1/2 life (12-18 hours), you have about 6 hours of leeway on the dose timing (for potential blood pressure issues not ADHD symptoms).
Look at the schedule (or lack thereof) for the summer. Talk to the doc on all the instructions and the "what ifs" for this med so you know what you can and cannot do during the potentially less structured time in the summer.
We also have not experinced any "rebound" issues with the Guanfacine. Either with or without the stimulant. Although my experience is not as extensive as some others here, we've only been using it about a month and a half.I use Guanfacine myself to help Anxiety, but it's a very low dose (.5mg) as needed and up to 1mg a day if I need it twice. However, I did not notice any rebound from that dosage. Of course I am an adult too so that doesn't really help your case much.