Neither my son nor daughter ever had to reduce their stimulant dose when taking Intuniv or Tenex. Since it is not a stimulant they don't work the same way. In my experience, it would be fine to be on the original dose while taking Intuniv.
They called back and said it would be OK for him to be on Focalin 10 mg, so we're in the clear. Problem is that I think the Intuniv is making my son irritable and not his happy self. Ugh. Can Tenex be good for someone who doesn't do well on Intuniv?Definitely! My son did not do well on Intuniv at all, but does really well on generic Tenex. The short acting meds really work better for him.
[QUOTE=heatherr1]
Definitely! My son did not do well on Intuniv at all, but does really well on generic Tenex. The short acting meds really work better for him.
[/QUOTE]I have only had my son on tenex, ds is 13 and has been on concerta and tenex since he was shy of 7. We never tried intuniv due to the success of the tenex.
DS only takes it once a day, 1 mg, when he takes his concerta. If we want to add a second dose for like sports practice, night time activity we can. It really helps to relax and calm him down. His concerta is not as effective without the tenex! And you can split a pill if you want to lower the dose, we have done this!
Hope this helps!
This is great to hear! Thank you for sharing!I have only had my son on tenex, ds is 13 and has been on concerta and tenex since he was shy of 7. We never tried intuniv due to the success of the tenex.
DS only takes it once a day, 1 mg, when he takes his concerta. If we want to add a second dose for like sports practice, night time activity we can. It really helps to relax and calm him down. His concerta is not as effective without the tenex! And you can split a pill if you want to lower the dose, we have done this!
Hope this helps!
[/QUOTE]We initially added the tenex for tics, but noticed that it just seemed to "settle" DS a bit. He takes 1mg in the morning with his methylin, and takes another 1mg about an hour before bed. It seems to last about 6-8 hrs. He has cross country running practice after school, so we just switched the second dose to bedtime, it really seems to help him sleep. It seems that if we give the tenex without the methylin it makes him tired. This combo is working pretty well so far(knock on wood)!
I'm glad you found a combo that works! I just got the call back from the doctor--left message about the angry behavior since adding Intuniv and the nurse tells me to discontinue the Focalin and keep the Intuniv. DS has been on Focalin for 1.5 years and it's worked great, why would I discontinue it?! So, it's Friday afternoon and she won't be able to get back to me today. Ugh. I don't want to leave my son on a med all weekend that I know makes him irritable and angry. It says not to just stop taking Intuniv, though, so I don't know what to do. I guess I just wait for a call Monday . . .
We initially added the tenex for tics, but noticed that it just seemed to "settle" DS a bit. He takes 1mg in the morning with his methylin, and takes another 1mg about an hour before bed. It seems to last about 6-8 hrs. He has cross country running practice after school, so we just switched the second dose to bedtime, it really seems to help him sleep. It seems that if we give the tenex without the methylin it makes him tired. This combo is working pretty well so far(knock on wood)!
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Is your son on 1mg? If so, he should not have any problem stopping. My son was on 3mg when we pulled him off, and did not taper down. If it were me, I would just give him the Focalin this weekend, and just tell the doctor that he had a negative side effect from the Intuniv, and you are not comfortable giving it to him. Even if the doctor thinks it is not a side effect of the Intuniv, it can be. Just read this board, several people have had the same side effect. I would just let her know that you are interested in giving Tenex a try instead. I don't know why that woud be a problem since they are the same basic drug. It makes no sense for the doctor to want to remove him from a med that has been working. Of course, I am not a doctor, just my own opinion.
We have been through lots of meds, and our pychiatrist has been very supportive of trying new things. I did not ask before pulling him off of Intuniv. Once I made the connection between his terrible irritability and attitude and Intuniv I stopped immediatly. His attitude improved dramatically.
Do what you think is best.
I went to the pedi this afternoon. He said to stop the Intuniv cold turkey. Yes, he's on only 1 mg. Still didn't hear back from the neuro. I'm switching back to the pedi for med management. I don't like the level of care we're getting from the fancy neuro's office. So, no Intuniv tonight.So glad that things got figured out. I didn't want to add Tenex at the beginning, we did so because of tics caused by the stim. Then we noticed a "settling" effect as an added benefit.
Hope things are working out!
Well, I finally talked to the original doc and he said DS could try Tenex 1 mg -- 1/2 in am and 1/2 in pm. Now, I'm trying to decide if I should still give that a try in hopes that we'll get the "settling" effect your son experienced. DS is doing OK on the Focalin by itself, but it could be better--well, I think it could, anyway. I'm still contemplating, since I had pretty much made up my mind on just sticking with the Focalin after seeing the pedi on Friday. How long does it take to see the result of Tenex?Ihonestly don't remember, but I want to say it was pretty quick. And the results were very positive. My son's concerta goes hand in hand with his tenex. One without the other will not give him the same positive outcome as they do when taken together.
He also went from half a pill to one pill in the am only when we were still ramping up his concerta. Keep an eye on that as well. You may find that when he needs a med dosage increase, that the tenex has to be increased as well as his focalin.
Please post us an update!
Thank you:) He just turned 12 in July. This is the most stable he has been in awhile, and boy is it a relief. I think the Ritalin/Tenex combo along with the running is working out very well for him.
We actually began with it. When he started seeing a psychopharmacologist, the doctor saw my son, talked with him, observed his impulsiveness, hyperactivity, etc and we started the med roller coaster. We started with concerta and tenex from the beginning but had to work on finding the right dosage. It took my son 6 months to level off the first time. All the increaseses were for the concerta and then toward the end of the 6 months his teacher told us she saw no difference when we increased the concerta so we we increased the tenex from half to a whole 1 mg and boy what a difference. That was the key component. DS is still at only 1 mg but his concerta is 104. And he is successful.
[QUOTE=spanannie] This is great to hear! Thank you for sharing!
What was the original reason for adding the Tenex to the Concerta? I'm just curious, since I am having to make these suggestions to the doctor and want to have reasoning to support my requests. Although we're going to the supposed best ADHD doc in town, and I'm happy with him, he's not getting very creative with the meds, so I'm making these suggestions. He's OK with the fact that DS gets through school well and thinks that's good enough. I need afterschool and family time behavior to be good, as well. I don't want to settle for just OK, if you know what I mean. Thanks again!
[QUOTE=BETHANN]
I have only had my son on tenex, ds is 13 and has been on concerta and tenex since he was shy of 7. We never tried intuniv due to the success of the tenex.
DS only takes it once a day, 1 mg, when he takes his concerta. If we want to add a second dose for like sports practice, night time activity we can. It really helps to relax and calm him down. His concerta is not as effective without the tenex! And you can split a pill if you want to lower the dose, we have done this!
Hope this helps!
[/QUOTE][/QUOTE] What result do you see that you feel comes from the Tenex? Just curious. DS does great at school on the Focalin alone, but he is extremely hard to direct before school and afterschool. I have to repeat myself 10 million times to get him to do simple and important tasks. I literally put the breakfast in his mouth this morning, since couldn't concentrate enough to eat it himself. When it wears off afterschool, we have the same thing. So, yes, he's doing fine at school, but at home, he's wearing me out! He also has trouble with homework because it takes for.ev.er to get completed. It's not that he doesn't know the answers; it's that he gets hung up on all of these little details or things going on around him. Do you think the Tenex might help with what we're going through?Ihonestly don't remember, but I want to say it was pretty quick. And the results were very positive. My son's concerta goes hand in hand with his tenex. One without the other will not give him the same positive outcome as they do when taken together.
He also went from half a pill to one pill in the am only when we were still ramping up his concerta. Keep an eye on that as well. You may find that when he needs a med dosage increase, that the tenex has to be increased as well as his focalin.
Please post us an update!
[/QUOTE]We saw results very quickly. I would agree that it just seems to increase the effectiveness of his Ritalin. Before he had sports after school I would give it to him as soon as he came home, just to help with his attitude. Now that he doesn't get home until later we give it an hour before bed. It has really helped him sleep. DS also started on 1/2 AM and PM, now is on 1 AM and PM. [QUOTE=heatherr1]We saw results very quickly. I would agree that it just seems to increase the effectiveness of his Ritalin. Before he had sports after school I would give it to him as soon as he came home, just to help with his attitude. Now that he doesn't get home until later we give it an hour before bed. It has really helped him sleep. DS also started on 1/2 AM and PM, now is on 1 AM and PM. [/QUOTE]I don't remember him being tired on the Tenex in the beginning because he always took it with his stim. It will make him sleepy without the stim.
DS has tried several sports, and we have found that sports with a lot of rules to learn are too much(soccer, basketball). He LOVES to run, and cross country running has very few rules to learn so he is doing very well. He also loves swimming, we may try a swim team after cross country is over. I am hoping he will want to do track in the spring as well. He needs to get that energy out everyday, and it has made him a little more disciplined because he has to keep his grades up to participate. It is wonderful, though, to see him finish running a few miles with a huge grin on his face. It makes him feel so accomplished. His first meet is on 9/11 and I can't wait.
It took us a few weeks to see the full benefit of the Tenex (guanfacine), but there were some results earlier than that. We later switched to Intuniv to get longer coverage, and he's been more even on Intuniv than he was on Tenex. For instance, mornings have been much smoother.
My child still needs a stimulant along with it, but it's helped a lot for those times when the stimulant has worn off. Also, it allows us to give him less stimulant. When he first started Tenex, we found that he was getting too flat and successfully lowered the stimulant dosage.
Another advantage of Tenex/Intuniv is that they also lower anxiety. My child has GAD, so that was an enormous help to us. He cannot tolerate high dosages of Zoloft, and Tenex/Intuniv has been a life saver!
[QUOTE=Mom2ADHDboy]It took us a few weeks to see the full benefit of the Tenex (guanfacine), but there were some results earlier than that. We later switched to Intuniv to get longer coverage, and he's been more even on Intuniv than he was on Tenex. For instance, mornings have been much smoother.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, mornings were smoother on the Intuniv. I was hoping it would work, but started to make him irritable.
[QUOTE=Mom2ADHDboy]
My child still needs a stimulant along with it, but it's helped a lot for those times when the stimulant has worn off. Also, it allows us to give him less stimulant. When he first started Tenex, we found that he was getting too flat and successfully lowered the stimulant dosage.
[/QUOTE]
Our doc had us lower his stim dosage while on Intuniv, too, but it didn't cover him enough for the school day. He was on lowest dose of Intuniv, though.
[QUOTE=Mom2ADHDboy]
Another advantage of Tenex/Intuniv is that they also lower anxiety. My child has GAD, so that was an enormous help to us. He cannot tolerate high dosages of Zoloft, and Tenex/Intuniv has been a life saver!
[/QUOTE]I don't remember him being tired on the Tenex in the beginning because he always took it with his stim. It will make him sleepy without the stim.
DS has tried several sports, and we have found that sports with a lot of rules to learn are too much(soccer, basketball). He LOVES to run, and cross country running has very few rules to learn so he is doing very well. He also loves swimming, we may try a swim team after cross country is over. I am hoping he will want to do track in the spring as well. He needs to get that energy out everyday, and it has made him a little more disciplined because he has to keep his grades up to participate. It is wonderful, though, to see him finish running a few miles with a huge grin on his face. It makes him feel so accomplished. His first meet is on 9/11 and I can't wait.
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