Vyvanse and rebound | ADHD Information
My son has been on increasingly large amounts of Focalin and Focalin XR for the past few years. He does extremely well on it, but the rebound is becoming unbearable... here is the usual pattern:1. He becomes tolerant to a lower dose, or it starts losing effectiveness sooner.
2. We increase it...
3. He gets better in school
Then one or more of the following happens:
4. He becomes a raging lunatic in the morning before taking his meds, or
5. He becomes a raging lunatic in the afternoon after school when the XR wears off, necessitating a short-acting pill in PM, or
6. He becomes a raging lunatic in the evening after a short-acting one wears off
Then six months to a year later, he becomes tolerant, we increase the dose or add a short-acting on in the PM, and the cycle repeats.
And when I say raging lunatic, I mean trashing entire rooms of the house, stealing food, peeing in laundry baskets, climbing curtains... we are not just talking a small problem here.
On meds, he's the sweetest, smartest, calmest kid you ever saw. Off meds, he puts the "H" in ADHD.
So I've been hearing that rebound issues on Vyvanse are lot better. I talked to my pediatrician, and he's willing to try it. I have 30 mg waiting at the pharmacy now, ready to pick up. My question: has anyone actually seen improved rebound behavior on Vyvanse?
Thanks,
Audrey
PS: he got unbearably weepy on Adderall and Concerta.. the Focalin is the only thing that he could tolerate... but he's older now, so maybe that will change?
my 6yo dd has been on Vyvanse 30mg since 11/11. the first 7-10 days she would get a little moody and very hyper when it wore off. Like HELLO, the meds are gone and she is bouncing off the couch. She also had less sleep the first week, so i am sure that didn't help her mood. but it seems to be leveling off. no more bouncing off the couch, and her moodyness has gotten better. I give it to her at 5:30 am and then she goes back to bed till 7:30. So she wakes up ready to go, (no more arguing about getting dressed) and she still falls asleep at a decent time. she has been eating great, but i keep her breakfast and lunch to the food i know she will eat, and i keep her extremely hydrated, (borderline ocd for me). Around 5:30 - 6:30 pm i try to keep things mellow, in anticipation of it wearing off, but so far on we are on week three, and it has been very good.
so far she has been doing great at school, and homework is done in less then an hour , with little or no arguing. and it does seem to last at least 12 hours.
i have noticed that she is more particular (borderline ocd) about her stuff. she does not like her little sister in her room with out her there, and will not tolerate my neighbors "babies" near her stuff, "they make a mess of things."
i should mention that she was on focalin xr before, but it would wear off too early. i did not notice any rebound with it after the first couple of weeks.
My son , who is 10 years old has been on Vynase for 2 weeks . He is on the lowest dosage , 30 mg and is doing well. I see no rebound or coming down off of it. Its lasts approximately 10 hours and when he comes off of it, he is pretty much ok. He was on adderall xr a few years ago and the rebound effect was not pretty.
Supposedly the rebound is not suppose to be a problem with Vynase. I wish you good luck and keep us posted!
I give it to her at 5:30 am and then she goes back to bed till 7:30. So she wakes up ready to go, (no more arguing about getting dressed)
(snip)
Ha... I used to try that w/the Focalin, but unfortunately once I woke him up at 530, there was no getting him to go back to sleep, LOL.... I'm glad it worked for someone tho...
Luckily he's also borderline anal about stuff, so a little more OCD won't bother me much.
Thanks for telling me your story!
Audrey
[QUOTE=jacks8897]
My son , who is 10 years old has been on Vynase for 2 weeks . He is on the lowest dosage , 30 mg and is doing well. I see no rebound or coming down off of it. Its lasts approximately 10 hours and when he comes off of it, he is pretty much ok. He was on adderall xr a few years ago and the rebound effect was not pretty.
[/QUOTE]Thank you! I would love 10 hours instead of six that Focalin XR gives... it's amazing what an extra four hours of the day can do...
Audrey
Focalin XR gave us a full 10 hours which was perfect but it did have a horrible rebound. My son was only on for 2 weeks and has decided to refuse his meds. If we start up again I am going to look at Vyvance for the less rebound issues, with full coverage. spamula39415.2848611111
I am considering a change to Vyvanse. Our problem is really poor eating on Concerta but Concerta works well in every other way.
Has anyone had difficulty with poor appetite with Vyvanse?
What about rebound ?- my son has difficulty with rebound on Adderall and I know that Vyvanse is a similar med.
Thanks for the information - I really hate to change because school is so great this year but I can not tolerate how skinny he is!!
my daughter is 6yo. she is not the best eater, she has been on Vyvanse since 11/11. the first two weeks were rough on sleeping and eating and emotional rebound. she is much better and eating better now too. but for breakfast and lunck i do cater to her favorite foods. dinner is a different story, but i always try to include something that she really likes. i also try to give her a pretty decent snack before bed time. like chicken and apples. she has a really hard time gaining and keeping it on.(if we could all have that problem). but to be honest, she was like that before meds, so i wouldn't say that they were making it worse.
how long has he been on concerta? if everything else is working well, what else has the doctor suggested about gaining weight?
An update if anyone is interested. We started with the 30mg, and it didn't do much. We doubled it to 60, and it works a lot better... although not as well as the Focalin did.The good news is, though, that the rebound is indeed better! He's much more redirectable in the early mornings and late evenings when not "under the influence"....
We haven't gotten 12 hours out of it yet, but 10 hours seems to be the average.
We may move up to 70 mg, but we have to talk to his teacher first to see what she is seeing....
Audrey My son has been on Vyvanse since 12/15/07. He is doing much better focusing, but man is he mouthy and loud. Almost seems worse! Especially when it wears off. He is taking 30mg and I am supposed to call next week to see if it needs increased. Does this irritability get any better? I do take into consideration that he is a teenager too. But this is extra mouth. Thanks guys, you really don't know how much it helps to hear other words of encouragement. From parents of children who are going through the same things. It's like a breath of fresh air to hear. I love this website, and I love the people who take the time to help total stranger at that. To day we are going back on the meds, yesterday got better and better as the day went on. But your right, I have to tough this out, or it will never work for him. It's just harder because of the holiday season I guess. I wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful new year. Thanks again for all your support!
I found my son's personality was kinda lost on the Focalin. Right now he is refusing meds but Vyvance is on my list to try at some point. Good Luck to you.
I have to say that my son is 13 yrs. old and had been on Concerta, Adderall, and Ritalin at differnt times through the years and then when puberty set in he needed a change. That happened Saturday. He started the Vyvanse and what a difference. But he missed a dose today and it was hell here. I was at work and the kids were off school. My 11 year old called and told me how Robbie was acting. He was bouncing off the walls, talking real loud and excessively, and wanted to argue constantly. When on his med, he is fine. Focusing greatly while on the Vyvanse. Good luck.
nurse4wounds39436.9515856481Thank you! I sure will....Thought it was time for another update:Rebound is definitely much, much better, morning and night. The problem arises when the Vyvanse wears off after 10-12 hours and I have to give him one of his old short-acting Focalin to keep him going (for late homework or whatever)... the Focalin sets him off even worse now when it wears off. Luckily that only happens once a week or so.
His appetite is hugely improved on the Vyvanse. And his personality is shining through, which is nice. His writing, which has always sucked, is now absolutely lovely.
So all in all, I'm liking it. It's just that it doesn't always last long enough... but then again what does?
Audrey
Hang in there, Yes and I and everyone here has probably all had times like these. The meds do take 2 to 3 weeks to adjust, so try and hang in there, unless you really feel like they are harming your child (you will know). You can take a bit of the meds out of the capsule to make the dose less strong (I did this for the first week). I will say from past experience it is probably best to not keep giving the meds and taking him off. That does kind of screw them up. Rebound effects bla, bla, bla...
Remember this is not your fault. This is no ones fault. It just is. I try to look at it like a disability I can not see. We are kind and caring and patient with kids that have physical disablitilites we can see. These disabilities we can not see so it is far more hard. I "pretend" she has something I can see, so it helps. Weird, but what ever gets you through, right? Also keep in mind you are the mom, you are the disiplinarian, you are in control (even if you feel like you are not) and there are things you will not tolerate. Especially if they are hurtful. These kids need so much more scructure and disipline then do the rest. This all takes so much strength, which is tuff sometimes but remember it is for the well being of your child and children, and you. Look upon family or friends to be stong for you when you can't be. Make them aware you need them and so does your child.
I kiss my daughter every night when she is asleep (this is the only time she is peaceful and calm) I pretend she hears me, and I tell her tomorrow will be a better day...
Hang in there, I know it's exhausting, I know it's hard.
I would definatly speak to the doctor about that one as killing you is not normal. The med should last longer but some people including kids metabolize it quicker or need a stronger dose. This is psychiatrist territoryi noticed with my daughter it initially would last about 12 hours, now we are at about 9 or 10 but we just bumped her up. but with her no medication lasted as long as it was supposed to, so i am not surprised about it. The part about hurting himself or others, i think would need to be dealt with asap. these medications are supposed to help them not make his or your life more challenging. and i don't believe that they should alter anyones personality to a great extent.
the duration of these long acting meds is the average. Many people metabolize faster than they say, also if the dose is too low this seems to be a concern.
I, however, would not continue on any medication that made my child that unhappy. I agree with Az Kristen that these meds are intended to make life easier for your child, not more challenging.
mysonmyangel,
Poor thing. I am sorry you guys are going through this. I know things seem helpless at times. But just look these boards and know you are not alone. My daughter is on 30 mg of the stuff. She is very irritable at times but nothing like this. I agree the "I am going to kill you guys" has to be delt with immediatly. Even though the meds may be to blame, I think your son must know this is not acceptable at all, and will not be tolerated, especially around your 3 year old. How scary for him! I am sure your doctor will address this and adjust meds as neccessary. When my daughter has an episode she "goes away" from everyone. Is put in her room and under no circumstances can come out or speak to anyone until she has calmed down. Usually after awhile this results in her knowing she was wrong and comming out to say she is sorry. Even if her room is destroyed, it is her consequence to deal with and she can visually see the damage she causes with her temper. I think sometimes they need to see what they can cause and take responsibility for it, and that no one can be around them when they behave like that. This works for us, may not for all. Best of luck to you, I hope you find the right dosage etc. Wishing you a wonderful episode free Holiday!
Thank you guys! I didn't give him the meds this morning, because I was unable to speak with his doctor. can't do that until next week actually(wow that sucks bad too). She only works two days a week, but she is the doc who knows everything about him. My husband was angry at me for not giving him his meds, but I wanted to see if it got better. He reminded me that the doctor said it would take about 12 days for it to truly be in his system, anybody ever heard this? Which of course made me feel like an ass, because maybe I am not giving it enough time. But it' s been one hellacious week here and this morning was no better. He told his brother a little while ago he was a little dumb ass....... wow. he went to time out for a while.....long while until it was time to get ready to go somewhere. I just keep thinking, is this normal, do other kids do this? I know by no means am I a perfect parent, i do and say alot of things I shouldn't but my child cannot do this stuff to me and his brother. I always wonder what I did wrong, to make my child act like this..... but I try to tell myself it's not my fault but sometimes thats not the way I feel. He's my child, my responsibility. Thanks guys!!!!!it took my daughter at leat a week more like two to fully get adjusted to a medication. i think that is pretty normal for her, and possibly for a lot of other kids also. my husband and i have butted heads about meds also, i always remind him, that i love my child and would NEVER do anything to hurt her. To me meds are like some horrible science experiment. i wouldn't blame yourself, you didn't do anything wrong, .if we could go back in time i am sure there would be things we would all change (i have a list a mile long), but you can't and you didn't make your child have adhd, or make him act this way.
look at the positive, he didn't say he was going to hurt his little brother, just called him a dumb ass. good for him for using his words. i think that is a step in the right direction. 
Good luck!
Switching tomorrow from Straterra to Vyvanse. Has anyone noticed that the Vyvanse last longer into the evening?
initially i think that it did last a lot longer then 12 hours for my daughter. we started giving it to her around 6:30 on 11/11. but after the first two days scalled back to closer around 4:30 (she was having a hard time falling asleep). we are slowly working up to 6 am. right now we are at 5:45, and i will start at 6am over winter break. it last about 13 hours now, but she is adjusting to it well and she is still falling asleep around 9:30 or 10. my daughter was on Straterra over the summer and early fall. it did not do much for her impulsiveness and she started to get really agressive and moody on it. so we switched.
she has been on it a month, and although the first week or so were an adjustment, she is doing great, her teacher has also comented on how well she is doing, and trying a lot harder. so far i keep my fingers crossed.
I have noticed that there really is no rebound on the Vyvanse so far. He has been on it now for three days. We could tell immediately when the medicine wore off before - now it's not so obvious.
The only issue we are having is sleep. Even his appetite is not too bad. Well, if you don't count the two waffles complete with butter and syrup at 3:30 am. 
I think that is more sleep than eating though.
He goes to school tomorrow and I'm really hopeful he will do well!
[QUOTE=rhondacty]Switching tomorrow from Straterra to Vyvanse. Has anyone noticed that the Vyvanse last longer into the evening?
[/QUOTE]
My son has been on Vyvanse for a month . 30 mg dose. It lasts about 10 hours for us which is fine. The higher does may last longer but I dont want to chance any more side effects. I give it him at 6:30 am when he wakes up before he even eats.
I am considering a change to Vyvanse. Our problem is really poor eating on Concerta but Concerta works well in every other way.
Has anyone had difficulty with poor appetite with Vyvanse?
What about rebound ?- my son has difficulty with rebound on Adderall and I know that Vyvanse is a similar med.
Thanks for the information - I really hate to change because school is so great this year but I can not tolerate how skinny he is!!
[/QUOTE]
My son is on vyvanse 30 mg for a month so far. I have not seen any more decrease in appetite than from any other med he was on(he was on Adderall xr and provigil) He eats very well in the morning before it kicks in, he eats very little during the day( i pack snacky foods, pretzels, cheese, boxes of cereal, granola bars,pudding, etc as regular sandwiches etc he wants nothing to do with!).once home , he eats a pretty good dinner and he can eat all he wants till bedtime.
My son is 4ft 4 and weights 58lbs. He is tall and skinny for sure. The md said he is fine, and he is very healthy. The boy has only been on 2 antibiotics in his whole life! I hate that fact he is skinny too. He is starting to notice it too as the kids tease him sometimes and tell him he is *weak* cuz he is skinny! KIDS they tease you if your fat, they tease you if your skinny!
As for rebound, I did notice it for the first 3 days, but then it evened out. Not seeing anything at all in the way of rebound now. NO sleep issues for us either.
Most side effects DO lessen and even go away in a few weeks with Vyvanse.
my daughter tried Adderall xr last year and the rebound was horrible. i have noticed that with the vyvanse it has not been so bad. the first week or two were an adjustment for her, but after that rebound was not even noticable. Another update...We had to go up to 70 mg, cuz the 30 wasn't doing much...
It seems to last all day, wears of about 6-ish, so we are getting maybe 10/11 hours or so.
He eats more on this med than he ever has, FYI.
He is also sleeping well, but sleep has never been a huge problem for him (other than getting up with the sun, LOL).
Rebound still a problem in the AM, but it's definitely better in the PM.
Audrey
aesposito39427.3693518518thanks for all the advice all. I was hoping strattera would be the one, but NOT. Still having crying fits , anger and outbursts in the evening mostly. So thats why they changed her. Who knows may not be the end yet.
i googled vyvanse and dizziness, and got a bunch of hits. here is a link that talks about some of the side effects.
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/vyvanse_ad.htm
i did not get anything with vyvanse and low blood pressure, but i did see that high blood pressure can be a side effect. also when i googled high blood pressure and dizziness, it turns out that dizzyness can be a side effect of high blood pressure. i would venture that considering your daughters age, the meds are not causing high blood pressure, if it continues to bother her i would have the doctor check at your next apointment.
please let me know how it turns out. your right there is not a lot of first hand experience, and i always like to know who other kids are handeling it.
I know this post was awhile ago, but your situation and ours are very similar. My daughter 9, was metobolizing the Focalin (which used to work great) very easily and I did not want to give her a higher dose, she is only 52 lbs. Comming off the Focalin at night was rough for her, she was a nut... and she had no appitite at all. we switched to Vyanse 3 weeks ago 30 mg, she is concentrating much better, doing all her homework, by herself! She also has a pretty good appitite. I have noticed comming off it she is a little cranky but not nutty like the Focalin. The only side effect that has concerned me is that she complains of dizziness and blurry eye vision. Has this happened to anyone??? It scares her.
Long story short, I think the Vyanse is working better, especially if they are continuing to need higher does of the Focalin. best of luck hope it continues to work out well for you guys
my daugther never complained about dizziness or blurry vision, or anything for that matter (knock on wood). she eats well and sleeps well. we are increasing her dosage to 50 mg, and so far no side effects. her concertration was good, but her impulsiveness was starting to show its ugly head.
i wonder how long after you give her the med does she feel this way? and is it every day? does it come and go, or is it constant? both of them can be side effects. Also how is she eating? from my own personall experience, if i don't eat well, or stand up too quickly, i can get blurry vision or dizzy. my doctor said it is probably because my blood pressure can drop, or blood sugars for not eating.
Thanks for the reply! This reaction seems mid day through evening and it has been everyday.She seems to eat okay, much better actually then on Focalin. But the bloodpressure thing makes sense, hope it's not due to the meds. I did not realize they can both be side effects did not see that anywhere, not a whole lot of info out on this yet that I can find. Thanks again, and glad your daughter is doing well on it, that's nice to hear for a change!Thanks Az kristen, I really appreciate the message. I don't know if I am just hoping too much, but today was fabulous. I mean great! So if it works this fast, I'm in love. This might be the one, eating is fine also which that wasn't always teh case on daytrana. It's now 7:12 here and no rebound!!!!!! Thanks again!!!! K.I.Ti hope it keeps up this way. we have been really happy, with a lot about it. i also love the fact that it lasts thru the school day. i have my fingers crossed that it will continue. My little guy is starting vyvanse today. We have been on the daytrana patch for 1 week, and the doc today said based on what I had told her it wasn't working. She said it was one of the faster acting meds and that we would go ahead and try vyvanse. How long does it take to see results in vyvanse? Daytrana was ok, but mood swings were worse and he was so emotional. Maybe a small rebound about 4:30 or so when we took the patch off. So I am anxious about this. I hope it works. For his sake. Any feedback would be fab. Thanks !
my daughter teacher noticed it imediately. i noticed it also pretty quickly. my daughter has been on 30 mg since 11/11 and this weekend we are working on 50 mg. initially she was a bit quieter then usual but her personality came back in full force and she is doing great. her concentration has been off this past week so i am hoping that an increase will help with it.
i hope it goes well with your son. my dd had some sleep issues initally but her eating was fine. and very little rebound
My son's irritability didn't get any better after we increased his meds (from Vyvanse 30 mg to 50 mg), he just got worse. While he is medicated, he is fine, but first thing in the morning and at night before bed it's a nightmare.
I'm pretty sure I'll be taking my son off of Vyvanse and asking the doc to change him to something else. He does fairly well until it wears off, then becomes extra emotional at night and in the mornings he's a real bear until the meds kick in again. Growling and scowling at everyone for no reason. Much, much worse behavior than before the meds. So we are going to take a few days off and see if he "levels out" so he's not so grumpy in the mornings and so "touchy" at night. But he won't swallow a pill, so not sure what she will suggest.