Hi, I realise there is a seperate board regarding med's and I have had a look through there but a few posts from other's regarding Strattera have been left unanswered so I thought I would post here.
My 9 yr old son was on dexies awhile back with minimal benefits and then he started devloping tics so we stopped the med's and he's been off them for about a month now. I don't notice alot of difference between on/off med's for me to warrant him to continue with the med's. For him to be on med's, I'd be wanting to see some big difference. The school however, say they have noticed a difference (talking non stop and very loud) so with this, my son's paediatrician has decided to continue along the lines of medication but not ritalin or dexies because of the "tics" which did go away for a week or so when we stopped meds but have continued since. The paediatrician has decided to try Stratters, starting at low dose for a week and then upping to 40gms 1 x per day. I've come accross negative info about this drug (suicidal thoughts, dark thoughts, aggression etc.) and it's put me off. I realise this is probably a rare side effect but was wondering if anyone has tried or is familiar with Strattera that can give any info. I also realise everyone is different and differenet meds work differently with everyone.
Thanks to all
Strattera was the first medication for ADD that my son was put on. I decided to try this one as it is non-narcotic. It takes time to build up to see any benefits and seemed to help somewhat. Then my son started having something similar to tantrums saying that he couldn't get his thoughts in order and even began talking about wanting to kill himself. He was just going into puberty at the time and I just thought he was being a very emotional pre-teen. Then we read up about the side effects of Strattera and saw that this could be one of the side effects. We took him off for a period of time which then those outbursts discontinued. And not being really sure if it was the medication, we tried him one more time on the Strattera since he was having so much difficulty focusing at school but he began having those tantrums again and suicidal thoughts. This proved to us that it was definitely the Strattera. I've also conversed with someone else on this message board who's son also had this same side effect so I'm not so sure how rare it is.
We also tried my son on Adderall and after 8 months of being on it, he had a psychotic episode and a tic. Our pediatrician never warned that his medication could cause that and my son's psychologist never equated this psychotic episode with the medication and wanted him on anti-psychotic drugs. We researched and found out that it is definitely a side effect of the Adderall (and other narcotic ADHD medications.) We took him off the Adderall and within 3 days he was back to his normal self. Then we had to deal with fatigue which is a symptom of Adderall withdrawal.
These medications have definitely helped a lot of people and I'm not saying that no one should use them. I just want everyone to be aware that the side effects are real and not always as "rare" as people are being lead to believe. And they don't always show up right away which is important to know.
So my advice to you is any medication that your child tries, if your child exhibits any depression, suicidal thoughts, tics, or circular thinking, first thing you do is take your child off the medication and see if it clears up before allowing a doctor to treat those symptoms with any other medications.
Good luck. It's definitely a struggle.
My son has been on strattera for 2 years now. He has done good on it. Recently we had to increase the dosage, but a week into the increase we are back on track so to speak with much less frustration.