rnbacre, my daughter suffered tics from most all stimulants and IMO upping the dose will not decrease them. If you're seeing them on Adderall and Focalin, and Concerta, you could keep trying, you never know you may hit a stimulant thst doesnt cause them. They all release a little differently.
Suggestions, try Daytrana, for some the release by patch causes less side effects than oral meds. Strattera is non stimulant. We are currently using Desipramine which is a tricyclic antidpressant prescribed for ADHD. No tics. And she was suffering with a few different tics when we stopped stimulants. She is having no side effects except a bit of a dry mouth and if we dont dose right a littel bit of tiredness, but spreading out the dose stops that. For the most part her ADHD symptoms are pretty well under control compared to no meds, but I am not sure how its working for school yet, we have her TEAM meeting this week.
I have recently heard from another mom, that her doctor told her that upping the dose of the stimulant can stop or lessen the tics. Has anyone heard of this? We just switched meds again, but the tics are still there. Please if anyone has heard of this or experienced it, let me know. Thanks BrendaNo, it won't. It will sometimes make them worse. What usually happens is that the body becomes used to the meds and the tics stop. Raising the dose, especially before you know the results of a new med can ( and usually do) make them worse.
What meds have you tried?
If the stims are causing tics maybe ask the Psych to try a Non stimulant med?
He was on Concerta for over 2 years, then he felt like he wasn't focusing as well. So, we switched to Aderol. From day one he started this blinking really tight. The doctor said that it is a tic. I said that I didn't like this. He said there is something I can prescribe to take the tic away. I don't want him on anymore meds then he has to be. Why take one drug to counteract another drug. So, I asked about Focalin. He said that would be good because it is close to Concerta, which he never had the tics with that. We are on that for 2 weeks now and we are noticing the tics again. So, now I don't know what to do. I guess we just keep switching? Is there any that are non stimulants? Thanks, BrendaAdderall is dexamphetamine, Focalin is Dexmethylphenidate, 2 completely different meds. Maybe he will do better on the Focalin. [QUOTE=rnbacre]I have recently heard from another mom, that her doctor told her that upping the dose of the stimulant can stop or lessen the tics. Has anyone heard of this? We just switched meds again, but the tics are still there. Please if anyone has heard of this or experienced it, let me know. Thanks Brenda[/QUOTE] I am having the same problem with my son. He is 10 and in the sixth grade. He has been on concerta since the first grade. We only gave it to him during school. Not on weekends or vacations. We started noticing facial tics last year but they would only last a little while then go away, but this time when we gave it to him he started doing it a lot. So two weeks ago we stopped giving him his meds so that we could see if it was the meds causing them. Well they did stop for the most part but he still does it a little bit, so I'm wondering would he have gotten them anyway?, or does the meds make them worse? I am taking him to the neurologist in a couple of weeks but I do not want to give him another med as he is doing ok in school without the meds. His math teacher told me that he was still twitching his eyes as of this past friday. I have heard that sometimes kids have tics when they are stressed. Has anyone heard of this? Thankyou for any input!absolutely stress and anxiety increase tics. If he is doing ok off the meds may be a good choice for now, but he may need to go back on them. If so keep trying just becasue one stim increases tics it does not mean a different one will do the same.I know you do not want to add another med just to counteract the first med, but some of the meds used to counteract tics are also effective for some of the ADHD symptoms. These are guanfacine and clonidine. The combo of one of these meds plus a stimulant was found to be more effective than either alone, however, whether there is a benefit for an individual is always difficult to predict. Some parents swear by the combo and some hated it. Please read the very long Tenex threads on the medication board, as they have references to studies, practice guidelines and children's experiences with guanfacine. You might look at adding guanfacine to augment the concerta that seems to not work as well.
Also evaluated whether stress or anxiety has increased at school or socially. Anxiety and stress cause the brain to not work as efficiently. This causes an increase in ADHD symptoms and makes the meds not work as well. It can also increase the tendency for tics.
Run, do not walk, away from that other mom and her doctor. Please don't up meds without thorough research. We have been there and done that.My son had tics with every med we tried. Focalin produced the least. InThe research does say that stims do not increase tics, but my daughter only has LOTS of tics while taking stimulants. Hasn't blinked, or jumped, or sniffed not once since we stopped stims in June. So, it may be that it is the increase in anxiety (caused by the stimulant) that increases her ticcing, but either way, off stims, no tics, on them, tics. She is not having great success on a non stimulant med so we are willing to try Daytrana, however the contraindications for Daytrana are TICS, hmmmmmmmmmm.....interesting..............
We are going to give it a try anyway as we're running out of med options and I need to see it for myself and know that I can stop at anytime and the tics will go away.