I've been on Strattera (80mg) for a couple months now. I don't really feel any different, but my wife says to stick with it a little longer. I'm tired of the stomach aches, dry mouth and constipation. I'm going to drop it to 40 today and none tomorrow. It hasn't helped concentration or memory at all, just leveled my moods. I'll much less tempramental.
I think I'm ready to try a stimulant. I haven't been on Ritilan since grade school. It seemed to work then, hopefully it'll work now.
Have you experienced and muscle spasm or twitching while on this medication? I frequently have both but I am not sure which medication is causing it. I am on Strattera 40Mg 2X Daily, Effexor XR 75MG 2X Daily, and Provigil 200MG 1X Daily. I am curious as to other ADD/ADHD patients experiences with treatment of their illness using Strattera. Please briefly share your opinions and experience with this medication. What type of other medications have you been treated with at the same time as Strattera? I myself am on Strattera and Zoloft, they both work great. I have heard people having major problems with Strattera but this never happend to me. Infact Strattera started working really well within the first week, dont take my word for it though, some people have really bad reactions to it. I myself am on 50 mg of strattera a day, and if i dont take it one day i have fidgityness and lower concetration. but when i am on it all of these problems mostly go away. The one thing i dont like and am not sure about if its the medication, since i also have low self asteem, is that i think i notice that i have better conversations with people when i am off the medication.
I just switched from adderall to strattera. Today was my first day on strattera and I felt like I took a lot of cold medicine- like I'm detached from my body. I've also gone back and forth between being starving and feeling really sick to my stomach. Does this go away/get better with time, or is that how strattera is?
I used to think that I couldn't survive in college without meds, but I've been on them for two years and I couldn't take the side effects of adderall anymore and I didn't think it was dong me much good, and now the side effects of strattera are worse. I'm starting to think that I would be better off just going it alone.
tRY ASKING IF YOU CAN DO 1 PILL AT BREAKFAST 1 PILL AT LUNCH. tHIS WORKS BETTER FOR OUR SON. THIS HAS ALSO DECREASED THE OFF FEELING.Not herd good things about Effexor at all. Our son has only tryed Strattera. No side effects have really happened for him. Grown/gained weight since on it. Sees dr. every 3 months now. He does depakote too. We draw blood every other visit now. So far so good. 18 twice daily. He is 52 lbs. turns 9 on the 15th. 25Depakote. 1 time.Terrible experience with Strattera. My son was a suicidal, emotional wreck. Emotional problems started with the first dose. He also takes Depakote with ADD/ADHD meds. Depakote knocked me out thats a tough med. Yeah hated effexor so be careful. Especially when you decide to stop taking it or change meds. I still have side effects from the effexor and I've been off of it for 2 years. I'm on 40mgs of Strattera right now and I don't really like it much. Sure, I can concentrate much more then in the past, however, it makes me really sluggy feeling and tired...I don't like that. Going to ask the Pscyhiatrist if I can switch to Aderrall XR. I have been on 40 mg. Strattera for about a month now along with 15 mg. Lexapro (of which I had already been on 10 mg. every other day for depression). I feel very lethargic and withdrawn and am looking forward to trying something else. When I tried dexadrine, ritalin and adderal about 5 years ago it made me to too nervous although I haven't tried extended release. I was thinking of asking for a small dose of xr Adderal to take with the Strattera and maybe it would balance. I had managed with nothing for 5 years but have come to the point where I can't even focus (or sit still) at a job I know very well. I am 50 yrs. old and believe menopause may be playing a part in how I feel. Does anyone have suggestions or relate to this? [QUOTE=kellygirl21]I took Strattera 80 mg a day for just a little over a year (just switched to Adderall). It made me feel constantly sick to my stomach, so I never ate. I was ALWAYS exhausted, like I was in a fog. I stuck with it, because I thought it was just me. Finally, my neighbor told me she takes Adderall and how much better it made her feel, so I asked my dr and he put me on 10mg a day, which he just upped to 20 mg a day.
I feel A LOT better than I did.
My 6 year old has been taking Strattera for over a year. It does make him very sleepy, but only after he takes it, not all day like it used to do to me. He still has no appetite, so eating & wt gain is a challenge. But his behavior improved SO much, it was obvious it was working. In the last 2 weeks, he started acting out of control again, so we upped his doseage and he's back to his old self again. He does complain of being sick to his stomach after he takes it and it does start to wear off about 3 hours before it's time to take it again, so we had to balance that with school, dinner and bedtime.
[/QUOTE]I took Strattera 80 mg a day for just a little over a year (just switched to Adderall). It made me feel constantly sick to my stomach, so I never ate. I was ALWAYS exhausted, like I was in a fog. I stuck with it, because I thought it was just me. Finally, my neighbor told me she takes Adderall and how much better it made her feel, so I asked my dr and he put me on 10mg a day, which he just upped to 20 mg a day.
I feel A LOT better than I did.
My 6 year old has been taking Strattera for over a year. It does make him very sleepy, but only after he takes it, not all day like it used to do to me. He still has no appetite, so eating & wt gain is a challenge. But his behavior improved SO much, it was obvious it was working. In the last 2 weeks, he started acting out of control again, so we upped his doseage and he's back to his old self again. He does complain of being sick to his stomach after he takes it and it does start to wear off about 3 hours before it's time to take it again, so we had to balance that with school, dinner and bedtime.
PD,
I was on Strattera for a couple months about a year ago, and Effexor XR 150Mg daily about two years ago for about 9 months. I've had some twitching while on Effexor, which was usually pretty mild but noticeable.
I've also tried Paxil CR early last year which also caused some twitching. I think its a common side effect with some SSRI's.
Strattera caused other side effects for me which I felt were intolerable (urinary and sexual side-effects), but never twitching.
-ja_add2004
My dd, who is 5 1/2, has been on Strattera for approx 3 months. It is working quite well for her. It has really helped with her impulsivity and moodiness. Her moods are much less erratic.
We have recently added a bit of Tenex to try to further control her hyperactivity.
She has had few side effects from the Strattera, a stomache or headache here and there (she had those before the meds). I do notice that she is quite restless in her sleep (she was before the meds too) but it seems to be a bit worse. She does take it at night, so we are going to do a split dosing (10mg am/10mg pm) and see if this helps. When she took the 25 mg in the am, it knocked her out.
Overall, we are pretty happy. From reading this post, it seems like we are the only ones!
Suzi
My son tried strattera, and it made him very lazy and in a fog - he was an excellent hockey player but once on the strattera he couldn't care less about the game. He would just skate around not even trying...Then one incident on the ice scared me - he pulled himself off crying because he said his heart felt like it was about to explode it was beating so hard. I took him off strattera immediately.
He also had urinary problems - complained that he always felt like he had to urinate and wouldn't leave the bathroom.
Strattera was awful for me. It allowed me to focus in class, however I noticed that I was always very tired which defeated the purpose. I would sleep almost 10 hours a night and still feel as if I didn't get enough sleep. I also noticed that I was very irritable and the SMALLEST thing would make me so angry. I now am on Adderall XR and hoping for the best.
liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike, i am on straterra. and you know what? do you know what? at first i was like "o this is so gay" "i cant hold a boner for 3 minutes" ya sexual side effetcs BUT NEVER FEAR! i, being slighty smart, refuse to let doctors give me high dosages of bullsh*t. but after a while,the sex side effects wore off and now it seems i have more sexual stamina (i used 2 be a minute-man) i take 18 mg. of concerta and 18 mg of straterra. o ne one experiencing harsh comedowns from conerta at like 6 (if u take ur meds at like 7a.m.) then do what i do! uhhh ya take ur med, WAIT 15 minutes THEN eat breakfast. ya major difference. newho straterra! ya the onnnnnly thing i have from strattera now is litttle tinnny stomachs pains maybe one or twice a day for like 10 seconds each, and if u cant handle that, u got more than add man. basiclly my point with straterra or neother med is TAKE LESS THAN MR. RICH DOCTOR PRESCRIBES YOU! so...hmmm the only major prob with strattera is some insomnia. but it's probly temporary. remember kids, ur tough, ur strong and YOU not your medication determines your day. make the best of it. peace out
addlad45638511.0353587963 My son is 10yrs old and took strattera until a month ago, we went on a cruise and forgot the meds and he seemed okay but when he came back and went too school he got in trouble constantly I was considering taking him off it so I purposely skipped a dose a day or two the first week back since he had already missed some days. He was extremely irritable and got suspended! That had never happened before it was mostly for things like disrupting class and just being very angry at kids he said were making fun and picking on him. He's highly emotional anyway and this seemed to really push him over the top. I then stopped giving him straterra altogether and after a while he seemed to be less depressed and irritable. this really all happened over a two month period. Now he's out of school and on nothing and seems much happier but still argumentative at times. Still much more pleasant to be around, very hyper though. I'm not sure if it was the Stratera or coming off the stratera or what. He got really irritable on Concerta too but I think they had him on too high of a dose. Oh and his physiologist said he might have been a little sleep deprived too. He was very easy to wake up in the morning and would sleep at odd times at the drop of a dime like in the doctors waiting room or in the car. Now with no meds I can hardly wake him up and he sleep so deep he's had some bed wetting problems that he hasn't had in a long time. I'm sure the lack of good REM sleep accounts for some of the irritability. Peregrine00138511.8016087963The rate at which you begin a medication is key. I started strattera but my quack insited on starting 10mg a day and going up to 20 the second day. I got bad chest pain and palipatations.Terrible experience with Strattera. My son took it for about 8 weeks, 40mg in the a.m. and toward the last week, before calling it quits, we added Ritalin LA. Either the LA or the combo made him itch like crazy. He developed welts and redness all over his arms and legs from scratching so much. And the Strattera on it's own made him more hyper than he was without meds. At least we gave it a try but it was not for my son.
Strattera made me tired, socially paranoid, and just plain scared. I'm a very outgoing 24 year old and it made me the polar opposite of how I am usually. All I wanted to do was sleep or lie in bed with the covers pulled over my head. I was restless, irritable, and jumpy. Adderal, Dexedrine, and Concerta have worked for me. Strattera amplified all my problems (except the hyperactivity) and made my brain a complete mess.My son has taken stimulant meds since he was diagnosed and when we heard about stratera we wanted to see if he could take it and wean him off the stimulants. During the first week he became more 'social'. The second week his grades went from A's and B's to C's. Third: C's & D's and before the end of the month he had bottomed out to low F's. He bacame more impulsive and the 'mouth' was reborn. Took everything I had not to wash his mouth out every time he opened it. The mood swings grew worse and we couldn't get him to do any of his homework. When his next month's doc appointment came around his doc wanted him to take the stratera and a low dosage of ritalin. Didn't help much. On the next appt, we put him back just on the ritalin.Strattera must be changed every 5-7 days until proper dose. It does cause tiredness. This can be relieved by taking after dinner instead. Our prefers it Then. We only us during school year though.