Any med vacation updates? | ADHD Information
Hi,
Haven't posted all summer and was just curious if anyone else gave their child a med holliday this summer? I had planned on it then chickened out. But then 2 weeks ago my son expressed his frustration with his tics. They were worse and he did not like his new focal tic. He wanted to know when they were going to go away.
He was on Concerta and Tenex. We had a discussion and finally did it. He has been off the Concerta for 1 1/2 weeks. The change did not happen right away but it is slowly improving. His tics have reduced considerably. He is eating like a horse and falling right asleep at bedtime (no more insomnia).
Yet he has impulse problems and is just someone hyperactive. NOTHING like what I expected. I really don't think he will be able to go back to school with just Tenex. But if we go back to Concert-Hello Tics!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wonder if Strattera would be successful? We will discuss with the doc in a couple weeks.
Anyone else have any updates.
ang
we didnt do a med break, but switched to a tricyclic antidepressant for the same reasons. TICS and weight loss. Mostly the tics though. Here too, she is doing well. Gained about 6-7 pounds, no tics. Last night in beda t 8:30 and slept until 8:00 this morning! We just started slowly adding some supplemets to her Despiramine routine. No prlblems so far. No HUGE change, but she says she feels greatMy youngest is not on her stimulant for the summer (but is still on Tenex and Risperdal) to maximize weight gain. She has been great, but I know that the stim will be needed for school. We will, however, be getting a baseline without the stim during the first few weeks of school before adding the stimulant back. We have to depend on the teacher's feedback for the youngest because there is very little feedback from her about the meds, and what little there is is indirect.
My oldest was in summer school, which has just ended. She passedt her summer bridge to pre-algebra class (A-) and will be going to honors math this coming year. She too will start without meds to get a baseline. In her case, she knows the difference on and off meds and can help determine the appropriateness of meds and the ideal dose.
This is pretty standard for the kids' doc-the anual baseline.
vickie39300.8623842593We did a med vacation. It was mostly a great success. My son has had unbridled fun, no social issues and gained about 5 pounds. However, he seemed to develop a mild tic while off meds. He has had a tic in the past that went away on its own, while off meds, so I am not overly concerned. I will definitely put him back on meds on a week or so before school starts. When I tried to do some schoolwork with him I could clearly see the lack of focusing ability. Just sort of staring into space and not absorbing what was being said. We also did a med vacation and I think this is what we will do in the Fall...the main area of difficulty for my DS is writing and this is a problem on or off the meds so I choose off for Fall because he is able to do most of the other academic work without trouble.I always do med vacations, when Cody is not in school he is not on ADHD meds. He is 10% of his height and weight for his age and the only way he seems to grow is when he doesnt take the meds on the weekends or on vacations.
I'm with you there. We cant do stimulants at all due to tics. Off stims for us no tics. We are using a tricyclic antidepressant (Desipramine)and it is helping a lot with fidgeting and impulsiveness, less interrupting, and poking and having to be first in line, that stuff, no tics, no other side effects. Great appetite and sleep. Still pretty disorganized and isnt focusing well on summer homework, but is able to stay on task. I've recently added Omega 3's and am hoping this combo will carry us for school.
Gosh I wonder if something like that would benefit my son? The Desipramine. If there was just something that would help him focus without the side effects of the stims. The doc wanted to add Zoloft last winter because Erik was showing signs of anxiety which was related to the tics which were related to the stims.........I didn't think it was the worst idea to try Zoloft but I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea of my son being on a stimulant, an alpha adrenergic agonist (Tenex) and an SSRI all at the age of 8!!!!!!!
As a nurse I know the medical profession gets in a vicious cycle of treating the side effects of one medication with another and so on and so on. It can be endless.
Good Lord what to do
ang
We did Zoloft and a stim for a while, unfortunately Zoloft slightly increases the blood level of methylphedinate in the system, her anxiety got worse. Others though do this and do ok, not for us, the tics were really bad. Read about Desipramine and/or Norpramin, it's worth a discussion. It must be followed by an EKG and blood work which is why a lot of docotrs do not like to use it, but it was worth it to get rid of the tics and like you said the multiple meds to be treating all the side effects. She took Nortryptiline at age 10 (worked well, but made her too tired), for 1 1/2 years, then we tried stims again and had a bad year of worse side effects so we've gone to the Desipramine and it's not magic, but WAY better than the stimulants, for us. Let me know what you find out. We did Tenex for a bit too, to help with tics, worked, but not as well as dropping the stims, now they're basically gone.Ang, I don't know how long your son has been on concerta but my son was on it and developed ticks. I talked to the Dr. about it and he said that if let go these ticks can become permanent. So check with your Dr. about it. My son is off Concerta and now on Adderall XR.Shelly
maybe he was just in a growth spurt with the appetite increase? Had you stopped a stimulant? I've noticed a HUGE appetite increase whenever we've stopped stimulants. Catch up time I guess! My daughter's appetite never really subsided this time, but I think it's adolescence this time, she sleeps about 12 hours a night this summer too 
. We'll take it! She's never LOOKED healthier.
I have been working on multiplication tables and I really see the lack of focus.
About 2 weeks ago I have started to see a real cut back in appetite. I wondered if some supplement was making him not hungry. I stopped all supplements for an amino plasma test and that did not help with appetite.
One week ago I started loading strattera, and the hunger, or lack of it is getting worse. I know strattera takes a long time to be effective and the lack of hunger started before.
Maybe a kid can only gain so much in a summer before his body backs off.
He still eats lots of good things but just not very much.
I will say that my 6 year old, who has been on strattera for 3 months, has started eating more and that has been very successful!
Shelly I am not sure that is accurate about the tics. My daughter has suffered tics off and on with certain meds. They go away. Childhood tic disorders eventually pass, they wax and wane throughout adolescence. We've suffered through tics for long periods of time, but once we stopped the meds they stopped. It really depends on the cause. Always check with your doctor, preferably a child psychiatrist.
My son had tics before he started any medications. We did not recognize them as tics for a while then realized the coughing, throat clearing and even gasping wasn't asthma they were tics. He eventually started Aderall but it made him very edgy. We switched to Concerta with good results. Then his former child psychiatrist though he wasn't getting enough sleep so he wanted us to try 2 weeks of Metadate CD and then 2 weeks of Ritalin LA. I think we tried the Metadate first- that's when his tics increased. He had complex motor tics where his whole body twisted and turned and thrusted. We went off of that and was told he should try Staterra. It was the end of the school year and he had been doing so good on Concerta so we just washed out the Metadate and went back on Concerta. The tics remained but not as intense.
He has been on it 2 years. He has in the last year developed vocal tics so the Doc gave him the Tourett diagnosis. Since we saw an exacerbation of tics with the metadate we hoped to see a decline when he went off the Concerta- and we really have.
I just don't know what to do about school