concerta and stratterra bad news | ADHD Information
My son has been on concerta since 4th grade we started at 18 mg and worked our way up to 72 mg. he was starting to wear off early on this dose and it was suggested by both his psychiatrist and therapist to try Straterra Concerta combo. so he is now on straterra 40mg at weight dosage and 54mg Concerta he gets straight A+ on all schoolwork and homework but is an emotional wreck, very impulsive and missing turning in assignments. It just isn't working for him. I know Bethann that you use the tenex with the concerta . he is now 11 1/2 in 6th grade and in possibility of being held back because of missing assigsnments maybe 3-4 a grading period. this brings his grades from A+ to d and f. not right we are seeing the doc hopefully next week if I can. 1. Can you stop straterra without weaning off? should I put him back to the higher concerta and ask to add tenex to control impulsivness, what else does it help with? We need help desperatly. someone please.I'm not Bethann (who has more experience with this) but I can add a bit. You can stop straterra cold-turkey with no side effects. It is not a stimulant that needs to be weaned. My son got over his emotional wreckage as soon as we stopped.We are starting tenex this weekend, so I can't advise you there, but I'm sure I'll be posting more soon. We never had good luck with stimulants, but also didn't have good focus on the alternatives, so I'm hoping if my ds responds well to tenex (no odd side-effects?) that we will be able to add in a stim to help with the attention.
If you wouldn't mind, could you keep me (us) updated on your journey so that I have a heads-up on what to expect, and I'll try and do the same.
Thanky you for your quick response to this situation, We spoke to the doc late last night who said the same just stop the Strattera and go back up to 72mg of the Concerta. So that is what we will try today, he also said he would see us on monday or tuesday and fit us in. I know Bethann has alot of experience with the tenenx and now I hear it comes 24 hr. have you hears of this? she has great luck with it but her boy is much taller, larger and takes a much higher dose than mine. This whole thing scares me and so it is off to the docs again. my son also takes Zoloft for high anxiety and that leads to impulsive behaviors. I will keep this thread open and we can check in and see how each other is doing. wish me luck.......
Hopefully today will be a better day
Good luck. My ds is only around 40lbs, so we are starting with .5mg tenex split into two doses (am and lunch). Our ped isn't that knowledgeable about it so he has sort of left it up to me about when to up to a full mg, or not to do it at all. I'm a bit annoyed, as I'm not a doctor, but we have to wait a few months before getting in to see the child-psychiatrist and the ped doesn't want us to have to wait that long.
I'm just glad we haven't run out of options yet. And I'm hopeful that this time we've found the right one!
When my son's Strattera dose was too high, it made him off-the- charts hyper. That may have been your problem with the Strattera...it might have been too high a dose.
Anyway, Tenex sounds like a great idea to try! We've had great success with it! My son also has anxiety and the stimulants aggravate it. The Tenex helps counteract the side effects of stimulants. It smoothes him out so he can tolerate the stimulant (that he so desperately needs!) without anxiety through the roof. I know that others say that it helps with the impulsiveness, but nothing has ever helped my son with that except a stimulant. The Tenex just allows him to take it!
And yes, Tenex comes in a long acting form now called Intuniv. I think with the Intuniv you take 1 dose per day as opposed to 2 or 3. My son takes three but it works well so we haven't tried to switch over to Intuniv. We figured: If it ain't broken, don't fix it!
If your son's Concerta is wearing off too early, have you tried a "booster" dose of a short acting stimulant in the afternoon? This may do the trick unless it interferes with his sleep!
Good luck and keep us posted! 
because it really helps with the impulsiveness and hyperactivity. It doesn't do anything for focus. We found that when we increased on the tenex that he would be tired for several
days to a week but then that would wear off. Tenex also helps with the evening rebound/withdraw - in our case, it has been a lifesaver. My son would get so emotional in the
evenings, just unbelievable. You couldn't help him calm down. Once we added the evening tenex, he returned to being a regular kid in the evenings. Makes my heart just ache for
him, but so thankful for the meds to even him out.
My son cannot take a booster dose or he is up all night and would not eat a thing. even though he goes through the concerta dose so rapidly, the booster we tried was horrile and it was a low dose.I have heard many good things about tenex in combo with the Concerta and hope that we will be given the opportunity to try whether it is split doses which my son would HATE , he hates how many pills he needs to take, or the long acting. We shall se what the psych has to say hopefully tomorrow.
He is off the strattera now and back to the 72mg of Concerta.