Dayrana having manufacturing pblms AGAIN | ADHD Information

Diane:

What problems are you having with Daytrana?  Is it just the patch difficulties or the medicine?  What dose is your daughter on? 

I knew I shouldn't have said anything about my little petri dish. He came home silly and stubborn today.   He swears all was fine in school but I don't know...  Homework is taking way longer than usual.

I've had great success with Strattera for my older son, who is an ace student but was in la la land when it came time to do homework.  It was like night and day once he started taking it.  

I'm sure you've read all the warnings about ramping up properly on strattera.  We really didn't have side effect issues with my kids but I know a lot of people have. 
It's also way cool that you can actually call in a refill on it.  Woo hoo - no drive to the doctor every month!

We are not having any problems with the patch itself, it is fine, skin is fine. It's the 2 hour wait for effect in the mornings and once it comes off an hour and a half or so later back to difficult child. Today is just particularly bad, maybe hormones. But school is saying she lots of redirection, but is at least able to complete her work, she wasnt doing that. Homework has bascially been going well, she does it immediately after school. It seems we have good days and bad as far as symptom relief. She is only on 10, so I wasnt sure if the higher dose would help, but obviously it wont help before or after and she is having apetite suppression, has lost 5 pounds in 6 weeks putting her at 80 pounds, she is 5'1". She also has tivs that have increased a lot since starting Daytrana, but not getting in the way, yet, but I worry if they'll get worse increasing her dose. P-doc said if side effects were still there on Daytrana we'd try Strattera. I'm wondering if it's not worth adding the Strattera and staying on the 10 mg patch rather than switch completely.

If you start Strattera now, by the time she's at dosage it will be close to winter break so you can try skipping the Daytrana then.  Good luck. Hi Diane:

in case others are interested, I'll post it all here.

We started the strattera last spring when he was taking Ritalin LA 30.  Once he was ramped up on the strattera, it was summer and we decided to try dropping the stimulant to see what would happen.  He had made it OK on ritalin for 4 years, but it wasn't working as well as before and the side effects were a problem.  Also, his brother (not as severe) was doing well on strattera.

The summer was wonderful.  He gained weight, started actually enjoying food for the first time and started feeling more like a regular kid.  He was also a lot less moody and no more roller coaster days! Yay!

Unfortunately, on a family vacation at the end of the summer, we came to the conclusion that the strattera just didn't help enough with impulse control and the H side of things.

SO, we added the 10mg. of daytrana.  Every time I even think so far, so good something goes wrong.  So draw your own conclusions. As I said in my earlier post, we may have to go up to 15mg.  Still, he is eating, and for him the Daytrana is much smoother.  I also think that the stimulant alone made him too "out of it" at times. 

I hate thinking about my kid as a human science experiment.  But I would hate to think there was a way to help him function at his best and I didn't do everything possible to get him there.  Of course strattera makes me nervous because it is relatively new.  But it really seems to help him in ways the stimulants alone can't.  Even if he's silly or obstinent in the evenings or mornings, he can still process and think, which was hard before - he was kind of jumbled at times and very inconsistent.  Now he's  a lot more self-assured and aware. 

It was my idea to mix the 2 meds, no the psychiatrist's.  He's waiting to go back to his other patients with our results.

BTW, my son weighs 54 lbs and takes 35mg. of strattera.  He also takes 12.5mg./day of zoloft - has since starting the ritalin years ago.  I really want to wean him off that but it didn't work well when we tried before so maybe over winter break we'll try again.

Yes, my kid sleeps in a beaker at night.

well we've done ALL kinds of combos! He sounds like my daughter though. She is also extremely silly mornings and evenings, not so bad to live with that, it's that jumbledness (like that word?) and inability to think or process thats killing us all, most especially her. I'm going to ask him about starting Strattera and keeping the Daytrana. She has some impulse issues and mild H, but it's mostly inattention and distractability, so I actually think she is a good candidate at the proper dose for Strattera. I just dont know if it'll be quite enough for school alone with all that stimulation.

 I've decided she'd be fine if she could be alone for all tasks, the days we're all up and getting ready together, WAY too much for her. Obviously we all live here and have lives so it cant be that way, nor is that real life. Oh yeah, plus all those other kids and teachers at school . Then again, today she told me she gets distracted in language arts by the clock !!!!!

We have been on Daytrana since May.  There were some problems with the early patches.  We called Shire and they gave us a card for 40 free patches.

We get our Daytrana via mail in groups of 3 .... that is what our mail in prescription company requires.

I just opened the third box ... same lot and expiration date as the other 2 boxes ... and ALL the patches are bad.  Worse yet school just called to ask if DD was still on the medication.  Her recent behavior has them very concerned.  It appears to them as though she is not on medication.

I know Shire has a recall on the early patches.  But this box is not part of the recall.  Lot 2571411 wich expires May 2009.

I called Shire and they are going to send another card.  They are getting better because they asked if I was willing to send back 5 unopened patches for them to study.

ANYONE else having patch problems??  Post the expiration and lot number.  Maybe we can figure it out.

 

Is the problem with the patch just the glue or is the effectiveness compromised?  The new box doesn't seem to be working as well, so my son's teachers say. He's been antsier and less cooperative in some settings.   The batch we have now opens beautifully, unlike the last batch where the glue was always messed up. 

It's entirely possible that we just need to up the dosage to 15 mg.  - it's only his second month so we're still not sure about dosage.  But the part I LOVE about the Daytrana combo with the Strattera (our current medication formula) is that my son never gets "dopey" like he did on the Ritalin 30 mg. alone and I'm worried that will happen if we jump to 15 mg.

Whoops - I went too long again.  Thanks for you help. 
Enbmom, you're using Daytrana and Strattera? This intrigues me as I'm struggling with liking and disliking Daytrana. Our next step or plan B was to try Strattera. I am wondering if instead of upping the Daytrana and worseinng her side effects we could add Strattera? Hmmmmmmmmmmm, which did you start first or does it matter? The Strattera must help with 24 hour coverage and decrease some anxiety I would think.

My son is on Daytrana 20 mg. for about a year now. At first he took the lowest dose, no change and very itchy. Upped to 15 mg, again no change. Since he started 20 mg 9-10 months ago he was doing good. Until now!  For the past 3 weeks his behavior at school has been horrible. Not completing work, no focus, disruptive. I've put a call in to his ped. to see if maybe he needs a higer dose. I put his patch on at 5:30 am and school starts at 8:30 am. It seems that around 10 am he gets more in tune. He's 11 and weighes about 55 lbs. going to the Endocronologist in Jan. 2008. I feel bad for my son but I think sometimes he makes a concious choice not to do his work. I'll keep you posted. 

Our Daytrana report:

It worked great for the first month, even though the patches were difficult to peel.  I loved that it worked longer so that my son could get through homework.

The second box starts and after 2 weeks there are problems.  The patches peel beautifully but I start getting calls from teachers that his focus is off, he's very active in the classroom, and he isn't always cooperative.  So we got a new script and started yesterday with the new box.

Now his teachers are a little concerned that he's zoning in class.  One said he was "very calm." One said he was "out of sorts."  From my perspective, he came home from school and went right into his room and banged out his homework.  But he didn't eat much lunch.  I think (hope) that he needs to get used to it again.  That or the dosage is off (10 mg.).

I really like this medication and I'm getting frustrated.!