question about new medication
My son is 7 years old and was diagnosed with ADHD last year he has been taking metadate cr 40 mg daily since then and it is working fine but recently he developed a tic in his neck so we went to the doctor and they want to put him on a medication called intuniv it is a new one that is for blood pressure but it also helps with ADHD and tics. So she gave me a sample of this medicine and I was looking it up on the internet and there are some cases of kids dying from taking the two types of medicines together and one study showed specifically for intuniv said they dont recommend it with a stimulant medication but there were no deaths or bad side effects but still they didnt recommend it. I am just confused. I want him to succeed and not have the bothersome tic but I also dont want to give him something that could hurt him or worse. Just need some advice please. Thank you,Intuniv is the long acting form of Tenex (guanfacine is the generic). Intuniv just came out on the market but it's the same medication as Tenex-just in the long acting form. I know that Tenex is often prescribed for ADHD to (among other things) counteract the side effects of stimulants and does a very good job for a lot of kids. Doctors are just hesitant to prescribe it because it is a blood pressure medication for adults and it's only used "off label" for ADHD kids but it's becomming pretty common nowadays.
My son has been on Tenex for about 9 months along with Ritalin and it works wonders!!! Ritalin worked very well for my son's hyperactivity and impulsivness but the side effects made him angry and aggitated. Once we added the Tenex everything smoothed out! It is a wonderful medication for many kids. As for the reports about it--pretty much with every medication there is a report of people dying for one reason or another. I don't think you can escape it when you're dealing with medicine.
Remember Intuniv will take time to build up in his system so you may not see results for several weeks. Good luck! 
hello parents, im a newbie too this site and im so lost, my granddaughter has been diagnosed with an O.C.D with tic disorder in feb. of this year.. she was put on zolft, now she is also dianosed with adhd and is taking tenex, well lately she been having terrible mood swings, (melt downs is what her teacher describes them as) this is a 6 year old very timid and shy little girl who has never showed any violence ever in her beginning years of daycare or her 1st year of kindergarten...now she hitting, and pushing her classmates and has even said that the monster who lives inside her scares her when he gets angry....she gets very little sleeps, often waking up screamin throughout the night...her doctor has now perscribed respidure...(im sure the spelling is incorrect) but she has been taking that for a total of 5 days and i have seen some positive changes...im jus confused with all these meds, can someone maybe give me some questions i can ask the doctors, does this sound familair in anyones childrens? please try and give me some insight. on these meds....Welcome! and you've found the right place to come!
The first thing you need to do is decide if she's had a thorough evaluation by an expert in the field. I find that pediatricians generally aren't qualified to take on these issues. They just have too much else to worry about! The proper diagnosis is an ABSOLUTE MUST! Some of these disorders are treated very differently so it's important to get it right. For instance...bipolar and ADHD can look very much alike but they are treated very differently. I would recommend a pediatric psychologist, neuropsychologist, psychiatrist or a similar specialist that specializes in ADHD, ODD and these types of issues.
The other issue is her sleep. You need to figure out if her problems are causing her not to sleep or if the lack of sleep is causing the problems. You would be surprised at how much a kids behavior can change if they get the right amount of sleep. Some parents do a sleep study and find that the whole problem is solved by getting the sleep straightened out.
It may also be that Tenex is not the medication for her. Sometimes if a child cannot take the medication they get hostile, angry, and aggitated. My son is like that on Adderall.
I hope this helps a little and your granddaughter is lucky to have someone who cares so much about her! Good job grandma! 
When my daughter's tenex dosage was too high, she was very irritable.
Well it sounds like you're on the right track and are in good hands. Just stick with it. Get the right diagnosis and make sure the docs are one's that you trust. If you stick with it it WILL get better! I wish you the best of luck!
Welcome zacnautysmommy The Internet can be a fountain of misinformation and the information is only as good as the person giving it. Because someone writes something on the Internet doesn't make it true. As you go through this journey you will learn to distinguish accurate information from junk science. People with other agendas use scare tactics to appear credible. The people behind these scare tactics are usually snake oil salesmen looking to make a buck off of vulnerable parents by selling bogus products. When you question the safety of a medication and/or how it interacts with other medications speak with your local pharmacist as they are the most knowledgeable on the subject. Blood pressure medications namely, Clonidine has been used for years in conjunction with stimulant med's but then Tenex was prescribed in lieu of Clonidine because it didn't make the patient as drowsy as Clonidine. Doctors are very aware of these medications or should be if they are the treating and prescribing physician. We fear what we dont understand so when in doubt about a medication speak directly to a specilist in med management or a pharmacist. Good luck and please keep us posted
grannyslilangel,
I am sorry that your family is going through this. I find it really tugs at the heartstrings when we are dealing with children.
We went to a pediatric neurologist who diagnosed our son at a children's hospital. My son's meds are prescribed by a pychopharmocologist. He specializes in these mental health medications and patients. Our pediatician referred us actually because he also said this was not his field. And we wanted the best care for our son.
If I was going through all of this and my child was saying things like a monster lives inside her and gets angry, I would stop the current meds and re-evaluate. I would start over from scratch. Those comments scare me!
Please granny, let us know how things are going! We are here to help or just chat!!
Thank you everyone for your advice it is nice to talk to people who are actually going through the same thing as opposed to people who mean well but know nothing. He has been on both meds for 5 days now and it seems to be going ok. They did say that the intuniv would take a little bit to get in his system so i dont know how long that means, but i noticed a difference in him this weekend.Enter Your Email below to claim your Free Book