short-acting dose of stimulant???? | ADHD Information

I have several questions for the experienced people here!  I'm wondering whether a short-acting stimulant in the afternoon would work to get us through the evening. 

1.  What's the dosage of the short-acting stimulant vs. the dosage of the long-acting stimulant?

2.  How do you time it?  Do you give it like 1 hour or something before you notice the long-acting stimulant wearing off?

3.  How does the short-acting stimulant affect appetite?  My child eats 3 dinners in the evening to make up for lost calories during the day.  I'm concerned about that process first starting when the stimulant wears off at 8 PM or so.  It would make bedtime so late.

4.  Do you give the same stimulant in short-acting form that your child takes in long-acting form, or do you use a different one?  If it's different, is it a different medicine in the same family?  That is, a different methylphenidate or amphetamine?

5.  Have you noticed any changes in the effectiveness of the long-acting stimulant?  I'm concerned whether giving extra stimulant in short-acting form will cause his body to adjust faster to the long-acting one.

6.  Do you give the short-acting stimulant every afternoon, or only some days?  Do you notice any differences in the effectiveness of the long-acting stimulant based on this? 

7.  For how long is the short-acting stimulant helpful?  I guess this might vary based on which one you/your child take, so please let me know which medicine is taken.

Just a few questions!   Thanks for spending the time sharing your experience.  I'm really hoping this'll be the answer and will make all of our lives so much better, and at least manageable.

 

Mom2ADHDboy39831.2674074074Thanks for all of this helpful input.  I'm filing away the info. for the future!  The dr. decided that he'd first like to increase his guanfacine dose (generic of Tenex).  Since the core of our evening problems are impulsivity, he'd like to try this first before introducing a short-acting stimulant.  He feels this way b/c some people have appetite and sleep issues w/ the short-acting stimulants.  If increasing the guanfacine doesn't help, then he's fine w/ trying a short-acting stimulant.We keep short-acting Focalin on hand for those times when it's necessary (ya'll know what I mean).

He takes 20 mg XR, but only 10 mg short-acting.  It kicks in 30 minutes, and lasts about 3 hours.

We don't use it often and rarely refill it, usually only during baseball season when the two XR's he takes a day won't get him through a night game.... he doesn't seem to have built up the same resistance to it as he has the XR, but the horrible rebound is the same....

Audrey
We've used short acting stimulants in the past both in the a.m. before the long acting meds kicked in and other times in the p.m. after it wears off. My daughter has always done better on methylphedinate so we used 5 mg, generic methylphedinate. It is a four hour med. So yes we gave it as the other med was starting to wear off and it lasted four hours. It probably will impact evening appetite, but it is only 5 mg so depends on your childs sensitivity. My daughters is high. No we did not use it every day. Diane V39832.4745023148I also am interested in the different options for a booster in the afternoon. My DS is 10 and on Concerta which does not last enough for homework. I just want something to last 3 hours or so. So then it won't affect his appetite.There's no way to know how it'll affect appetite until you try it. We only ever had to use 5mg to help with rebound and give us later afternoon/evening coverage. For my daughter it did affect appetite, but that is the first thing to go with her on stims. All the short acting meds are 4 hours I believe. I gave it right after chool, 2-3 pm and never had sleep issues.I have a friend who's sone is on Adderall XR 20mg during the day anda  10mg Adderrall IR(or short acting) after school. Works fine too. I would think you'd want to keep it in the same "family" so for Concerta you'd use 5mg methylphedinate right after school.Our ds takes 54mg concerta. we use short acting focalin in the am or the
pm depending on when he needs a little more. we don't use the focalin
every day, just when he needs to go to an evening activity or is having a hard
afternoon.