Tenex & Sleepiness
My DS (ADHD & Aspergers) started taking Tenex a little over 2 weeks ago. He initally took .5mg in the am and .5 in the pm and we were thrilled. We started over the Thanksgiving break from school and his behavior was fabulous. I was so excited to send him back to school and get their reaction. ( a little back history...DS has been on stimulants for years but a few months ago he began to experience a lot of negative side effects; irritablity, anger, agitation so the dev. ped. took him off and began a dose of Risperdal and Tenex. We started the Risperdal while we were still trying to manage the stimulants) When he went back to school on the Tenex the school called and said he was tired, lathargic, sleepy and cold. The nurse was upset because his blood pressure was low. We did not and still have not seen this at home. At home he's up, awake, warm. After the schools inital reaction we lowered his am dose but after a week the tenex didn't seem to be helping his ADHD anymore so we re upped to the original dose. What I'm wondering is how long the sleepiness goes on until the body adjusts to the med. The dev. ped. feels confident that he will adjust and the sleepiness will go away. He's nodding off in class, sleeping at the nurse's office and wearing his winter coat all day at school. When we saw the doctor this week she added a 3rd dose in the afternoon because DS is still having trouble at school with compliance to do work. I'm sorry for the long confusing post I'm just coming very close to the end of my rope! The school wants to change his placement (regular ed classroom with an aide who helps all the kids) to a small self contained room with a one on one because of his behavior. We're still experiencing some agression, compliance issues, refusal to do work but he is able to sit still in class. Thanks for any insite anyone can provide.
When my child started Tenex, he had to go to the doctor's office for a blood pressure check 5 days later (or approx. that timeframe). My child's blood pressure was fine.My child had the fatigue go away after a few days, but everybody is different.
SinceTenex takes up to 4 weeks or so to get the total effect I would think that you should try to give it at least that long to let his body get used to it. Also, has your doc considered doing the Tenex WITH the stimulants? That's what my son does and the Tenex does a good job of getting rid of those negative side effects he gets from the stimulants. Just a thought...
My DS had been on stimulants for years before we started the Tenex. We had to stop the stimulants (Focalin XR and Adderall XR) because of bad side effectss. He was having issues with irritability, anger, agitation and the meds were cutting out on him way too early. He had been very successful with them for years but something in his brain chemistry has changed and they just don't work well for him anymore. We even tried adding a small dose of Risperdal while on the stimulants but it didn't help. I asked the doctor about adding a stimulant to the Tenex but she doesn't want to revisit stimulants just yet. He's been on the Tenex about 2 1/2 weeks and I don't think the dose is right yet so I guess we'll just wait and ride it out till after the holidays.
Logan's Mom - What side effects was your son having from the stimulants?
My son was having exactly what you're describing. He was irritable, angry, and aggitated. Also he has sensory integration problems and it aggravated this as well. He also had a problem with the meds wearing off too early. He metabolized them too quickly. Once we added the Tenex it smoothed out the anger, irritability, and aggitation which allowed us to increase the stimulant dose to the point where it didn't wear off too soon.Enter Your Email below to claim your Free Book