My youngest has anxiety issues that worsen with school. Before diagnosis and treatment for her ADHD, she was having rages and talking about wanting to die. After great success with the meds, last year, we decided to try her with guanfacine only and drop the concerta. Her grades only suffered a little (which was fine) and she seemed OK. After a while, the anxiety started showing back up. We think that her frustration with school causes anxiety. When here meds are fully effective she is good, if we do not have full effectivenes, the frustration of her trying to compensate eventually shows up.
We changed the stim to focalin (for weight issues) and added risperdal for anxiety. The summer has been great, but school starts soon and so will the anxiety.
It can be hard to sort out what is causing all of this, and it is hard to use these types of meds. I would work closely with the psychiatrist on the use of the meds and what to watch for. Antidepressants are used for anxiety and they are a 3rd line treatment for ADHD. In fact straterra was developed for depression but did not work as well as other meds. It does work for ADHD in some patients.
Hey Ya'll,
It's been a long time since I've been around here. Things have been going pretty good but there's been a bump in the road. Our daugher who was diagnosed with ADHD at age 5 is now 11.5. She had been started on Adderall at age five and we never had any problems with it. She took that for several years and then the Dr. wanted to try Strattera because it had less side affects, mainly it didn't cause sleeplessness and loss of appetite. The Strattera alone wasn't doing much for her focus problems so she was put on a low dose of Adderall as well. When we pulled her out of school to homeschool we eventually took her off the Adderall all together and she was just taking Strattera. She's been on only the Strattera for a little over six months now and has grown ALOT, eats constantly and sleeps well. About a month ago she started talking about feelings of guilt and shame and wanting to die. She's been off the Strattera for about two weeks now and the Dr. wants her to go back on the Adderall and also wants to give her prozac. We have an appt. with a child psychiatrist in a few weeks and I'm really reluctant to give her the prozac, esp. since it says it can cause or worsen suicidal thoughts. Any advice on this? I know there are often times coexisting problems with ADHD and have been looking into them as well. Anyone here have a child with ADHD and another coexisting problem like bipolar or ODD/CD?