guanfacine | ADHD Information

I've heard of success with this medicine, but our experience with it unfortunately was horrible. We added it because of our son's lack of appetite, as well as his anxiety on the focalin. We stopped it after two days because of extreme tiredness and uncontrollable crying. I know they say symptoms decrease in time but we couldn't watch him go through this another day. Hopefully, you will have much better luck with it than we did!

My son is on Tenex/guanfacine and it works wonders for him! But like Kathleen0515 said, unfortunately it doesn't work for every kid.

My son needs stimulants sooooo badly for the hyppppppper/impulsive behavior but they also aggravate his anxiety and sensory issues.  The Tenex smooths this out for him and calms the anxiety.  It allows him to take the stimulants that work so well for him.

If you tried to go up on the meds and it didn't work then it may be time to try Tenex!  I would definitely recommend trying it before switching to another stimulant if the one he's on has worked for him. Good luck!

My son takes guanfacine, but not in conjunction with anything else. The psych and the ped would like him to eventually take 1mg a.m. and 1mg p.m. but EVERY time we try and up him to even 1mg he has meltdowns and terrible nightmares. I'm guessing that he just can't handle more than 3/4mg.

His ped doesn't even want to see us anymore, because he's baffled, and we're STILL on a waiting list to see the psychiatrist. Since it's summer, I'm just not worrying about it too much. There is a chance that he would do well with stims added, but until we can figure out what's going on with the tenex, we aren't going to try adding anything more.

That said, the guanfacine is helping with outbursts, motor-mouth, and what I call his "buzzer." It isn't helping with focus, but if your son is already on Daytrana it might be just what you need. Be forewarned that in our case too much guanfacine didn't help with the afternoon crying jags or the out-of-control meltdowns over simple denials; it made them worse.

I hope you find the right combination for your son.

I have read a little bit about some who are using guanfacine before or after their regular meds for appetite and other issues.  My son has been doing pretty good on daytrana, but after about 5 weeks, his Oppositional and defiant stuff has been pretty strong in the afternoons evenings.  We are going to try to up the mgs to 15, but I tried that once and he was crying in the afternoons. 
Is this guanfacine something that helps with that?  I'd hate to give up the meds, because they work so well while they are working:)
It seems like has has regressed some days about 2 years in his ability to handle failure, "no" and things like that.
Thanks for your input!