Hi. My son was diagnosed yesterday with ADHD- inattentive type and started on Strattera today. So far the side effects aren't good. He feel asleep in school, was tired at home, emotional(crying over little things), dizzy, and just plain seemed out of it. He is only on 18 mg for the first 4 days then up to 25 mg. But if he is like this on 18mg I am just not sure what to do. I don't even want to give it to him tomorrow but does he just need to get adjusted to it and the side effects will go away or is this it?
I am nervous about this. Please let me know what you think. He is only 8 years old.
thank you,
Joanne
Connersmom:
I'm a little surprised that they uped your son's dosage so soon, although I admit that I am not very familiar with Strattera. The first 2 weeks on the medication are difficult and extremely stressful. We are just hitting the 2-week mark on my 6yr old nephew who started on Concerta 18mgs. He has had most of the usual side affects: mood swings, being extremely emotional over little things, problems sleeping and mild headaches but those have all gradually decreased over the past 2 weeks and are now basically gone except for the occasional mild headache. His dr. told us that they should go away after 2 weeks and if not we would re-evaluate, so don't be ready to give up after the first day. Just keep a close on his side affects and if they don't get better, or get worse, inform his doctor right away. It may be they either need to adjust his dosage or even switch to a different med. our dr. told us we would be lucky if we got the right med and the right dosage on the first try, but so far so good.
cwolfgrad,
thanks for posting. I went ahead and gave him his dose this morning and called the neurologist who is seeing him and she said if he still has same symptoms today we will take him off of it and if they go away it is the stattera. She said these are not the side effects we would expect to see. So we will see. He is not home yet from school but i hope they subside.
Thanks for your reply. this is all so new to me. Only got his diagnosis two days ago but have already learned so much.
Sincerely Joanne