Hi,
I have a quick question regarding Tics. My son on Ritalin LA (30mg), Wellbutrin xr (150mg) and 1 mg Clonadine (evening for sleep) has developed an eye rolling tic and an occasional tic of wiggling his nose. The tics seem to come and go but are mainly present when he is stressed or very tired. I discussed this with his doc who said he doesn't treat the tics unless the tics are vocal in nature and are annoying to those around the child. Is this typical not to treat the tics?? I asked my son if he is teased about the eye rolling and he said kids have asked him about it but no one has teased him. I feel sorry for him. Try rolling your eyes around often and it is very annoying. Additionally, we are slowly taking him off the Wellbutrin. Thanks.
Hi,
I guess my question is do most doctors treat tics that are not of the vocal type? Or, is it common to ignore the tics. It just seems odd to me to ignore the tics that the stimulants bring out.
My son had a few tics to begin with before he started meds (adderall first - increased tics horribly, changed to concerta then Daytrana - both increased the tics and "caused" new ones like what you're probably seeing in your son, but not as much as adderall and the benefit of his meds outweigh the tics to some extent).
After recently seeing a developmental pediatrician, she noticed his tics and how they increased dramatically with anxiety - he has motor tics (more noticeable) and sometimes vocal tics (clearing throat). She has switched him to Straterra for 2 reasons, hopefully improve his anxiety which in turn she hopes to lessen his tics. I would say in this instance she was very concerned with the tics because of his age and understands that he already has issues with ADHD, he doesn't need any other things going on to make him "different" to his peers and cause for teasing - so yes, his motor tics caused enough concern she is adjusting things accordingly.
We also changed meds (to non stimulant) twice because of the tics. The first time it was a significant blinking tic brought on by focalin, this time it started as blinking then just got worse and worse to increased motor tics, scratching, sniffing, jumping, she eventually developed trichotillomania, it was terrible, so needless to say we treated them (Tenex), but they didnt disappear so I took her off. My point is the first go around with tics, yes we did change meds with the blinking tic, but she did have appetite concerns also. We switched to Nortyptiline which is a tricylcic antidepressant, but is used 2nd level for ADHD also. It did have sedating effects so after a couple of years we tried Ritlain LA again, BOY big mistake that was the mess described above. So I've again taken her off tics and trich completely gone, we are now ramping up on Desipramine, another TCA with less sedating qualites. I am crossing my fingers! We're not there yet, but we're going to be I hope.
Mind you ALL these changes and adjustments under the guidance of a pediatric psychopharmolocolgist. Our pediatrician would never do all this and she shouldn't, you need to be expert at ADHD and meds for all this and my pediatrician knows her limits and when to refer.
The Wellbutrin very well could be contributing. My daughter did well on low dose Wellbutrin, but as we raised it, anxiety went out the roof. My daughter suffers from tics while on any stimulant. This last go around we added Tenex (Guanfacine) for the tics, which is the same family as the Clonidine, but she took it in the am and pm as it is not so sedating. It did help some. I ended up having to take her off the Ritalin, but the Tenex may be a help if your doctor will go for it. It may not help your sleep issues though.
What is considered a tick? My son who's 7 is on metadate cd 20 a day, and today he was a little unusual. He said he felt nervous and confused. He was trying to ask questions but he coudnt get them out correctly and he would start the sentence all over again. his eyes were all over the place too. i dont know if his eyes were a tick, or whether it was just his expression trying to get out what he was trying to say. His face has always been very expressive when he speaks, but today it was different. i dont know if this was a tick or not. Has anyone experienced anything like this before?I have not experienced that, but it does not sound like a tic. A tic is a sudden, repetitive, stereotyped, nonrhythmic, involuntary movement that involves discrete groups of muscles. It can be a bit more involved. We also had complex tics at one point, this was scratching, jumping, smelling.
How long has he been on the metadate? If this does not go away or comes back it warrants a call to the doctor.
In our case, our son was started on Strattera because he had shown occasional tics. He was not successful on it; I had him off meds for some time until I decided to take him to the doctor so he could be put on stimulants to see what happened. He has been taking Concerta for about 4 months and incredibly everything has been going pretty well in regard to tics. I was very scared about using stimulants with him because his tics are inherited by his father and grandfather, therefore I thought that he would be dealing with terrible tics while on stimulants; I even thought that he was dealing with Tourettes at one point; but the doc told me that he didn't meet criteria for it.
Tics are not present right now after 4 months on Concerta; I just hope everything remains like it is because he is getting benefits form this med.
He has been on metadate for a couple of months now. The medicine has worked in regards to his ADHD, but since he was in school, i wasnt able to notice any side effects. By the time I got home from work, the medicine has already worn off. Now, my sister is babysitting him during the summer, and I get to see him during my lunch hour. I was planning on a med vacation during the summer. I didnt give him his meds for 1 week ever since school finished. Today I gave it to him again because my sister said that he was all over the place yesterday. Jumping on beds, throwing things, and could not sit still and was very fidgety. I know its not her parenting/babysitting skills because she has two awesome boys of her own. Anyway, I think that what he was going through was maybe anxiety and not a tick. He was all exited because my sister found some cheat codes for his godzilla video game. She emailed me the link to print it out since her printer was broken. Since he knew that she found them, he was asking a trillion questions about the cheat codes. He was geting very frustrated with himself because every time he would try to ask the question, he would get stuck, and would have to start over again. At times, he would repeat the beginning of the same sentence like four or five times, while he eyes would look up, to the side, down and all over the place. Me and my sister were looking at eachother with this "what is going on" look because we had never seen him like this before. Do you think its anxiety? My son was diagnosed with ADHD in April, so I am still new to all of this.Could be. My daughter has co-existing anxiety. In ehr case the anxiety is exacerbated by certain stimulants. I'm not sure one incident warrants too much worry, but again, if this has never happened before, I'd keep an eye on it. May want to sort of make a decision of either on or off meds too.I prefer for my son not to be on medicine for the summer, but yet I know how my son is, and so does my sister, but as good as my sister is, I dont think she can handle my son without the med. She'll take care of him without the med if she has no choice, she's my sister and she'll do anything for me. But I dont want to giver her a hard time. From my understanding,, the meds arent like antibiotics in which you have to finish the bottle in order for it to work. Its a daily thing. Once it wears off, thats it. I give it to him depending on the situation. Everyday for school, not on weekends, unless there is a situation in which I need him to be focused and calm. Am I doing harm to my son by giving it to him sometimes and sometimes not? Thank God for this forum. I am married to an awesome husband, but he is way too opinionated when I try to talk to him about this. He hasnt done any research, and although he has a great loving family, he listens to their advice/opnions/suggestions more than mine and they also havent done any research on the subject. Recently his sister said not to give my son peanut butter becuase of the ADHD. wtf! what sense does that make? If I am going to take somebody's opinion, its going to be from someone who is or has gone though what I am going through so this forum is such a great blessing! (Sorry, I had to get that off my chest). it is in and out of your system in hours, which is the good thing about stimulants. I just mean you are not sure what is going here whether he's got side effects going on or a co-existing issue. The more stable things are the easier to weed through this stuff. It'll be hard to know if some days he's on meds and some days not, that's all.