Strattera? | ADHD Information

I just received a prescription on it... any thoughts about this drug? Pros/Cons?

Diane V,

How is your daughters hyperactivity?  Does it keep her calmed down?  That's the problem I have with my son, he is SOOOO hyper.  We are currently on daytrana, and I love it, but the mornings are awful.  Yes I could give him a short acting, but he needs to eat well in the mornings.  I would love to do something 24 hours.

My daughter has been taking Strattera since November. Have you taken any other medications? It's very different than stimulant medications. My daughter is seieng NO side effects. Her focus and attention are imrpoved, mood very stable. She is 13 and in middle school, it's not QUITE cutting it for classroom work, but we've just increased it and hopefully that'll do the trick. It's a tricky med, but a GOOD med. Good luck! The best pros IMO are generally there is no increased anxiety, no appetite supperession and it is a 24 med, so no ups and downs like on stimulants. I am newly diagnosed and have no experience of any other medicine, just hear either good things or bad things about Ritalin and therefore really wanted to try it out but my doctors didnt  let me.
I was put on Strattera only three weeks ago and I have to say I am (at the moment delighted) only 40ml but I feel that I havent lost myself and  become a zombie that I still have a little bit of an up now and again and even got excited today about something talking to a colleague. (will have to see how it develops with my work). I even felt mellow the other night, I was all on my own, that is a first in my life. I wrote a whole letter in one sitting (albeit 2am), have sorted out our medical bills without cracking up first and taking two weeks of anxiety to get round to it. I am even writing this mail without getting up now and again for a drink or something.
My mouth is constantly bone dry and always have a glass of water nearby at home.
After reading your mails I get the feeling I am going to have to keep my dosage in check and ask people close to me to let me know if I am going funny.
I feel so blessed that at 45 life can really start. It is much more together and calmer in my house now, but with Strattera I can still disco dance before supper and dance around the kitchen with the kids without ending up letting the whole thing get out of hand and end up shouting and screaming because I lose it.
Am interested to hear what Strattera has got in store for me in a few months . Surely when the noradrenalin is building up and cant be recycled by the nerve cell maybe it is worth taking a break every few months just to clear the noradrenalin out and let it build up again. Does this make sense to anyone?

Well, we were on Daytrana and, same thing I hated mornings and she didnt eat. So I wanted to try Strattera. Docotr said let's use both. We'll ramp her on the Strattera then add back 10mg patch of Daytrana. I was pretty happy with the Strattera alone so I never added back the Daytrana (plus she HATED the patch). After a while school got harder (after Jan 1) and her symptoms came back, we saw doc again and he liked her on it too so we chose to up it and add Provigil if need be later. She is VERY calm. BUT she is not super hyperactive anyway. We dont have all that "nerved up" anxiousness, fidgety, wiggliness like on no meds and for us even on stims (we always have to stay SO low due to side effects).

So my point, you may want to talk to your doc about using both. Strattera at night and the Daytrana in the a.m.  The Strattera may be just enough to help your mornings until the Daytrana kicks in.

CONS: it has to be ramped,

takes 6-8 weeks to work

 

PROS: 24 hour med,

worked great for my DD.

My daughter has been on strattera for about 6 weeks.  We are seeing improvement with her hyperactivity (subtle improvement).  As for the attention/focus part, we are waiting to hear from the teachers.  Hard to tell with vacation being last week.  So far we are liking the Strattera better than stims in terms of side effects -- stims seemed to be more effective in managing adhd symptoms.

Strat is a norepniephrine reuptake inhibitor, and break sare not recommended. The Norepinephrine won't "build up". thanks for that! I got this advice from another senior member, I am ramping and have upped from 40 to 60, am getting 'samey', (to normal people-well balanced) but I dont understand why the Strat is important to take according to weight. On 40 I was having too many euphoric , hyper times still but I want to remember who I am.
So the question is why the strat per kilo if I dont like the effect it is having on me. Have read some nasty stories of suicidal acts coming down from this sort of thing but thought ADDers dont react in the same way as non -ADDers.
why dont you talk with your doctor. It is not recommended Strattera be underdosed. Our doctor told us if my daughter wasnt do well enough on the highest dose of Stratttera, we would add something low dose (Provigil). If we had to up the Provigil he'd go to lower than weight recommended Strattera dose and up the Provigil. We had NO problems low dose Strattera during the ramp (this could be why). We use a psychiatrist (psychopharmocologist) who would be doing all of this off label. We are exhausting our options this is why. Again Strattera is weight based for dose (especially in children), stimulants are not.I am not a zombie but getting very 'samey' perhaps missing my impulsiveness  although of course its too much without it. Perhaps I ought to stay on the 40mg but I am 67 kg. Have gone up to 60mg cos I was going up and down (in my head - not dosage). What do you think about lowering Strat and supplementing it with Ritalin. Have never taken it, does it help to stop mistakes? You could add Ritalin, or another stim, but you can't lower the strat.