Our son has extreme hyper and impulsive behavior. He has been on several medications. At one point, he was on 20mg Datrana patch, Clonodine, and Risperdal.
The Daytrana has worked like a miracle for the hours of 10-5 each day, but seems to take about 3 hours to kick in, which makes the mornings very difficult. We have tried leaving the patch on, taking off just before bed, and actually trying over night, but seems that 9-10 hours max for it. We do notice a rebound within 30-60 minutes after the patch comes off, and the nights are a nightmare for us to keep him under control.
We did not see much with Risperdal, but it is an expensive medication, and the potential side effects for long term use concerned us, so he decreased his dosage over a couple of months, and took him off completely about 2 weeks ago. The biggest side effect we have found is his inability to fall asleeep most nights until 10PM-12AM, and the rebound without the patch seems worse.
Clonodine seemed like the perfect med for him, as it seemed to relax him more in the morning and at bedtime. However, his pediatrician (specializes in developmental issues and ADHD), began to require all patients on stimulates to have EKGs with a cardiologist. A second degree heart block was discovered, so he was taken off clonodine immediately. Although the dose was low, the heart block went away after he was taken off after a week.
He's been off clonodine for a couple of months, and the risperdal for a few weeks. We saw his pediatrician because he has only gotten much worse in the morning and night, with the issue of not falling asleep until 12 and even later sometimes. The Dr. is going to start him on the smallest dose of Strattera (10) this week most likely (although we may wait until our son has a 4 day weekend before Martin Luther King's holiday just to monitor side effects).
What I would like to hear is exerperience other parents with very hyper and impulsive children have had with Strattera and any feedback on side effects, etc. Thanks in advance.
I am wondering how old your son is. My son had a horrible experience with that mild dose of Strattera when he was 5 years old. I am just a mother and not any kind of scientist or doctor, but I do know that no two children respond in exactly the same way to medications. Given that, a warning was posted about Strattera on this website today. Depending on your son's age, it may apply. And, I think that they are just illuminating the tip of the iceberg with that warning. I have heard numerous negative stories of kids' experiences on Strattera, and I do not recall a positive one, although I expect that they do exist. Strattera was the first med. that our pediatrician recommended we try with my son, before we went to a specialist. It actually made my son violent and aggressive towards himself and others. Thankfully, he was only about 32 pounds at that time. He had turned 5 a few weeks before that. So, he was easy to control. Once we reported the extreme behavior to the doctor that he had never demonstrated before, we were told to stop the drug. We never even finished the free sample bottle. The behavior was gone, as soon as it was out of his system. I hesitated to post this, because Strattera may be the answer to your issues with your son, and I did not want to veer you away from trying it. However, I did post, because now if you do see something out of line after he takes it, you can know what has occurred in other instances with other children. Good luck & God bless your family!