Tics | ADHD Information

I been reading a lot about tics that children get when medicated.....

Can anyone tell me exactly what I should be looking for??????    I been reading

that its a side effect....like clearing throat or coughing.....

Am I correct in this??????    If not please explain.....

mamaou39456.9195486111

[QUOTE=spamula]IMO you should not be looking for tics. If they present themselves you will know. Yes throat clearing eye blinking and other things may be signs of tics. If you are seeing something unusual that you can't live with Call Your Doctor. The more you LOOK the more you will find as far as side effects.[/QUOTE]

 

This is SO true!

IMO you should not be looking for tics. If they present themselves you will know. Yes throat clearing eye blinking and other things may be signs of tics. If you are seeing something unusual that you can't live with Call Your Doctor. The more you LOOK the more you will find as far as side effects.

A tic is any reptetative behavior such as verbal or movement (motor).

An older publication (1996) discussed the information to date, including incidence of comorbidity with other disorders and effects of stimulants:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/ddil/stimtics.html

It is thought that tic issues may be unmasked by stims and other meds and stress. Stims are not thought to be a direct cause of tics, but unmask latent tics or worsen current tics. Also, meds like guafacine (Tenex) and clonidine (Catapres) can be used with stimulants to treat tics and ADHD that are comorbid.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/429050?srcmp=psy-030102

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/news_and_events/news_articles/news_ article_adhd.htm

My daughter experiences tics.  They come and go.  Her tics are usually excessive eye blinking.  Sometimes it is rapid.  Other times she blinks and closes her eyes really tight.  It is usually worse when she is anxious or when her med are wearing off.

When we did her initial evaluation, her teach at the time noted that she sometimes had an eye tic.  I had never noticed it.    After about 3 months of stimulates, she started the rapid eye blinking.  We took her off stimulates for a week and there was not change.  Since she was driving us all crazy, we put her back on.  They eventually went away.

Recently, they have started back up again.  Because they are bothering her this time around,  we have  put her on guafacine.  We have been on it for a week and haven't noticed any changes.

myy daughter also has tics. They do come and go and seem be to be lessening as she gets older, but they are also lessening as we have been getting away from using stims. Her general tic sounds exactly like horsemom daughter. It's an eye blink. Started as rapid blinking, but sort of ended up being squeezing her eyes shut, almost rolling her eyes. A few years ago, while on stims it was terrible and constant, drove her crazy and she looked odd. That was the first time we stopped stimulants and it completely went away. Every time we've revisited stimulants since it comes back immediately. Last year she had been on stims for several months (we were trying ot live with the tic), her tics got worse, she's scratch, do a motion with her arm, the blinking, she'd be standing still and just jump, all her tics according to the psych. We stopped stims at that point again and they stopped. As soon as we went back to school this year added Daytrana, theyw ere back. Now she's on Strattera and they have pretty much gone away, although I have to say, I see an occasional blink or throat clearing when it is starting to wear off before we add the afternoon dose. Guanfacine helped very little for her. It lessened the tics, but no way near enough to stay on the stims, last year.