My 8yo son was recently diagnosed with ADHD. He definitely has hyperactivity, along with impulstivity and inattention. We made the decision to try medication after talking with his teacher about ongoing issues in school (she is very good with him but has noted focusing issues the past two years) and more importantly at home. He has two younger brothers and the chaos and fighting that goes on is really taking a toll on everyone!
So we started about a month ago with Vyvanse. We saw no particularly effect at 20 so ped put him up to 40. For about a week everything was GREAT. I was amazed at the difference, and his teacher noted "improved focus." However 40 stopped working fairly quickly and at 50 he was way too emotional and angry. So we tried moving back to 30, which did still seem to help focus but didn't do anythying for hyperactivity and impulsiveness.
Next came Focalin XR. 5 did nothing. 10 did not much at all and at 15 he was angry, hateful, mean, combative and not at all pleasant. We are now on 5 with Intuniv added (1mg on day 2 so far), hoping the Intuniv will even out moods and hyperactivity. Too soon to tell yet but he seemed a little calmer last night.
My first question is should I ask his doctor to switch back to Vyvanse (or something else in that class)? We did see results on Vyvanse and had better focus. Focalin has seemed to do nothing except make him angry. :( I just feel like this is the wrong stimulant (if stimulants are going to work for him at all) and we had much better results with the first one, if short-lived.
My second question is more philosophical. What did they do several years ago when Ritalin was the only choice? It seems like I see so many posts on different boards about how a medication "stopped working" so they changed meds. How did it work when there was no other med to change to? Just a thought that occurred to me....
Thanks in advance.
We went through many meds before we got to Concerta which has worked