Illness or not? | ADHD Information

HI,

Our DS is on Tenex, 1mg in the morning and 1mg at night.  He was sleepy the first 2-3 days, but quickly adjusted.  On an activity schedule of 1-10..with 10 being how he acts without meds... he is about 8.5 to 9 with Tenex. 

More specifically.. the first day he took a nap and went to be early, 2nd day looked tired but no nap, 3rd day-no indication of sleepiness.  DS on Tenex is still above the bell curve for activity!

For us, Tenex does help turn down the dial a little bit..but doesn't help with focus, concentration or attention. 

Sandy

Thanks Sandy!

The tiredness hasn't gone away yet, but I'll give it one more week, because he has been sick and maybe just needs the extra sleep. If, in a week, he's still sleeping 12-14hrs/night then I'll have to call the ped again.
    
The ped said he wants to give it one week on a 3/4 mg of Tenex (1/2mg in am, 1/4mg at lunch), then add in a very low dose of methylphenidate (5mg split between am and lunch). I'm so nervous because of the horrible reaction he had the first time we tried it, but others keep saying the Tenex will smooth the way. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and taking it slow this time around.

    

Yes..it does sound like he has a "bug" that is dragging him down a bit. 

I hope that the add of the methylphenidate works well for you.  Our little guy seems to have the opposite reaction to almost everything.  He was on the stimulants (Ritalin) for a couple of months but developed tics.. so we went off and tried Tenex and then tried to add the stimulants back.  He had a very bad reaction (dark thoughts and threats, etc.).  This was on the first day...we stopped stimulants for good.   But, he has consistantly reacts against the convention wisdom.

Good luck!

 

We are now into the first week of Tenex. I've heard from some of you that tenex can cause drowsiness at first. Does anyone remember how that manifested in the first week? I don't know if that is what is happening or not. My son has been going to bed an hour (or more) earlier than usual, and seems somewhat sleepy after-school, but he has also been sick.

That is my second question. This is a kid that has never really been sick longer than three days before. He has been sick for 10 days now, and just seems so droopy. Can all these meds cause a lowering of the immune system? He has been off and on so many different meds this year and he has had more bugs this year than is typical for him. I'm a bit worried about him right now.

The last thing is, that since he stopped taking the Straterra his moods are much more even, but getting him to focus on his school-work has been horrible. He's barely getting half the homework done that he brings home each week, and that is with me right over his shoulder redirecting him over and over again.

I now have his bug and feel so sick I didn't argue tonight when he said he wanted to go to bed and not do his homework. I just tucked him in and said good-night. But I'm thinking that this could be a problem. He didn't even eat his dinner, just crawled into bed. We do have an appt. with the ped tomorrow. Is it too soon to add in the stim? Did the rest of you give it a few weeks with just the tenex before trying stims again?

I may ask for more time, either way, because he's been so sick. I can't really give an accurate description of his reaction to tenex if he's been ill the entire time he's been on it. I'm just afraid that we'll have another month of waiting before getting back in to see the doc and if I can get the ball going now it might not hurt. I'm feeling a bit down about all this and just wanted to put my thoughts and fears out there and get them off my chest. Thanks for all the support and advice. I really appreciate it.


Wow, that is what has happened every other time for us, too. I'm very scared to add the stims back in, because of the experiences we had.

When we tried methylphenidate at 10mg...well, let's just say dark thoughts and threats is a very good description (he even tried to ride his trike off a hillside and said he was trying to kill himself).

When we tried the short acting amphetamine salts at only 5mg he hyper-focused for 6 to 8 hours. Was super, super hyper the following day, and then cried off and on the entire third day.

You can understand my reluctance to try them again. But, he is having such a difficult time at school and an even harder time getting his homework done after school. Not to mention the social side of things. I just want to find something that makes it a teeny bit easier for him to function on a more typical level.

I am just so grateful for the support of others that I've found here. I honestly don't know if I would be so level headed about all of this if it weren't for this board. Thank you.

Whatever the "bug" is that's going around right now takes a long time to run it's course. My whole family had it recently and it took a good three weeks for my son to get back to normal.  So it's probably effecting your son also.

When my son started Tenex he was already on a stim so I can't really say what it was like without the stim.  But he was tired/sleepy for at least a week (maybe as much as two...it's hard to remember!)  He would fall asleep in the car or on the couch.  He NEVER does this!  It was kinda nice actually!  After a couple of weeks it went away completely.

I know it's scary trying to add the stim back in but at least it's completely out of the body within a few hours so if there are still bad side effects you can stop them very quickly.  Tenex has really made a difference with my son though...he wouldn't be able to take the stimulants without it. It keeps most of those side effects away!  Good luck and keep us posted!