tenex (gaunfacine) ??? | ADHD Information

my son is on 30mg vyvanse. he has been having sniffing tics and possible a new coughing one. they are getting very bad and very noisy. other than that the med is so great and he for once is doing wonderful in school. its too bad that he has these tics b/c we arent looking forward to taking him off of this med. im worried we wont find one that works this good. we have already tried adderall and concerta. he did have the sniffing tic on concerta but we took him off for other side effects. anyway i was thinking of tenex since i have heard that it helps with tics and anxiety. we think he may have a little bit of anxiety at school. not reallly a big problem b/c it doesnt effect him so much but since tenex could possible help both maybe thats good. so my question is has anyone used tenex with vyvanse? how did it go and any side effects or things to watch for and did u lower the vyvanse dose? also for those that have used it alone how good does it work? is it better to use with a stim? my ds has adhd combined type. very hyperactive impulsive and has attention probs. any info would be great. i couldnt get to his dr b4 she went home for the 4 day weekend so we have to wait until tuesday b4 i can try to get ahold of her. i figured i could find as much info as poss about tenex so when i talk to her i will sort of have a plan. i would love to hear how it has work for everyone before we consider trying it with ds. i dont like switching meds and trying new ones i get really nervous. esp now since he would be in school before we fully know how he is reacting to it. thank u for your help and for reading this.

kim

rosalie6839690.8193634259I haven't dealt w/ tics. We started guanfacine (Tenex) just to make nighttime better when the stim wore off. Pre-guanfacine, he needed melatonin to help him fall asleep. The guanfacine eliminated the need for melatonin. It definitely helps them settle down and fall asleep.We started two use tenex for two reasons - tics and her bouncing off the walls in the evening. We didn't lower the Concerta dosage when we added Tenex. She been on 27 mg of Concerta for 9 months. With tenex, you start low and slowly build up. It takes about 6-8 weeks to be fully effective. We started with .5 mg at night for 1 week and then went up to 5. 2 x day. A few months back, we went to .5 in the am and 1 mg in the evenings. We are now at 1 mg 2x day.

The main side effect is that it makes her tired when we increase her dosage. That tends to go away after a week or two. She also tends to get tired more easily when participating in sports - though this hasn't been a big issue.

She might eat a little better on it during the day, but it's not a significant difference. She eats most of her food in the AM or PM when the Concerta isn't in her system.

thanks horsemom! i really hope that it will stop the tics for us. since it should help some with the hyperactivity and impulses im kinda hoping we can lower the vyvanse to only 20mg. maybe that might help us with tics too. thanks for responding so quickly!! ive been stressing about this the last few days. just curious, what kind of tics does your dd have? mine also had them from concerta. they stopped for almost 2 weeks when we switched to vyvanse but then they came back and now he has a new one. the cough. thanks again! what would i do without this message board?!

kim

Eye blinking is our main issue. It got really bad last December/January where she would blink and then hold her eyes shut. That bothered her. The fast blinking she is doing now, doesn't bug her as much. We had issue with Ritalin LA, Focalin (made it way worse for her) and also Concerta. So far, the benefits of the concerta out weigh the tics.

We have thought about upping the Tenex again, but I am hesitating as I don't want to make her more tired.

I agree - this message board is great!
Tenex (generic is guanfacine) helped control my ds' impulsivity and hyperactivity, but not as much as a stimulant does. It does little or nothing for his focus. It also increased his daytime appetite while the stimulant is in his system, so he went from eating no lunch to a small lunch. That was a good thing!

horse mom did u give it to her b/c of the tics? did u lower the concerta when u started the tenex or just keep it the same? and did she have any side effects at first? mom2adhdboy did your ds only have tenex by itself? did your ds have problems with stim or tics? i think that would be wonderful if he could eat more food. i hope it will help him sleep at night. it seems like everyday he is sniffing and coughing more and more. and it gets worse as the day goes on. im worried to start it during the school week without being able to monitor him and on the weekends i work until about 3pm so i wont really be able to watch him then. i sooo wish i could have gotten ahold of the dr on friday so we could have used the extra weekend day to get him adjusted. how long does this med take to work? we havent tried a non stim yet. thanks for the help!

kim

We use Tenex and Concerta. The tenex alone isn't enough to control my daughter's hyperactivity & impulsiveness. The combo of the two work well for us - though her tics have started to increase again. We are going to see how things go once we have a regular routine with school and then make adjustments as needed.

so my ds has been taking the 1mg every night. i can tell its not making him as tired b/c it takes him a little longer to go to sleep. today we went to his pediatrician for a check up and she ruled out allergies so we are think ing he def has tics. so im starting the .5mg on sat morning. i kinda wanted to wait b/c alot of ppl have been telling me about allergies. no sense in taking an evtra med if he didnt need it. hopefully this will get the coughing under control soon. his sniffing has reduced dramatically. not sure if its from the tenex or if its just being replaced by the cough. will let u know how the morning dose goes. i was very happy to see that he gained his weight back and now weighs 50lbs. still skinny for being 4' 2" but now he is at his weight before meds. we are very happy. he has been eating more since tenex. anyone notice constipation with tenex or going to the bathroom more often. seems like everytime he eats he has to go to the bathroom and then it look like had balls sorry TMI but i just wonder if this goes away. we forgot to ask the dr. thanks for all of the support.

kim

Joejoesmom:

You might want to talk t the prinicpal because according to our principa;, the teacher is required by law to follow any accomodations made in a 504. It is not the teachers decision if your child needs special accomodations or not. My son does not need any special education services so he does not have an IEP, but he does need some classroom accodations so he has a 504. Last year when the teacher wasn't following the 504 (and she also had a lot of ADHDers in her class), I learned that I could take actions against the school if she didn't comply. Amazing how when I told her that, she began following the 504. You can look up your rights on line..just google "section 504" and you will find sights to help you. If you son needs his own desk, push for it, don't let the teacher scare you. You are truly the only advocate for your son! Good luck.

Mars

My son has been taking concerta 18 mg and half a .5 tenex in the a.m. and half a .5 tenex in the p.m. for several months now. We went to see the doctor today for a follow up. This years teacher has mentioned that my son chats way too much. I asked her if she had noticed that in his 504 plan he is supposed to have his own desk. This is the second time I have told her this but she acted all shocked and said HE'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE HIS OWN DESK I DIDN'T KNOW THAT. Then she went on to tell me that she asked if any kids wanted their own desk and my son was not one of the ones to request it. She said that she gave the extra desk to another boy in the class. Now I know for a fact that he has no problems whatsoever. I like that boy very much but it just seems strange the teacher would ask children who wants their own desk when there are at least 3 kids with ADHD in the class my son being one of them. So anyhow, I took him back to the doctor today and they said not to increase his Concerta but just increase his tenex to .5 in the a.m. and .5 in the p.m. I'm not so sure this will do much of anything it does help with his bad temper but that has been fine lately. Maybe I should just let this teacher deal with his chatty disposition since she finally ended up telling me that unless your son has an IEP there is not much she can do with a 504. She also said that unless he's behind by 2 grades she can't do much. He scored in the advanced level on the State testing and also he reads at a 6th grade level and is in 3rd grade. Why such struggles when we get a 504 to enforce it?One other questions her sorry, does anyone actually get real tenex? We are always given the generic gaunfince. I'm wondering if it makes a difference if anyone gets the real deal and finds it better.We use generic. I just usually refer to it as Tenex because I can't remember how to spell guanfacine. We use generic too. joe joesmom- let us know how it goes if you increase
his guanfacine. Good luck!Thanks we tried the larger dose last night before his homework and he was very irritable and tired. But then it was late because we got home late from the doctor appointment. He was also tired this a.m. but I will give it a week to see how it goes. At school in the line up he was arguing with another girl who cut in front of him and she was banging her back pack into him. She also has ADHD and she is like the female version of him maybe worse. There are so many kids in his class this year with either autism or ADHD it's like they threw them all into one class. I'm not sure why but I feel sorry for the teacher. On the other hand she's made it clear that unless he has an IEP instead of a 504 she is not giving him any extra accomodations. I guess with so many kids who are way worse off she doesn't feel concerned about him. She has complained that he's too chatty. Oh well.What you describe about your son sounds very similar to mine at that age. I wish I had gotten help sooner. You are on the right track. I really think you will find the Tenex will help him. It has been wonderful for me son. Now it doesn't control everything but it does work pretty quickly. I noticed better behavior in about 4 days I just have to make sure I"m on time giving it. We still have terrible mornings and I too have often felt like I can't handle this. But we go and and we do you will see. The gag thing is also similar to my son. Now when he was 6 we had an upper GI done and they did not find anything. But like I said before the ADHD meds did seem to stop his gag problem. He only has it once in a while. But to this day he cannot drink milk or it will make him gag. Now he can eat yogurt and ice cream and I only buy lactaid milk as my hubby needs that kind. Now he will have milk in cereal if he eats that but usually he will not eat that either. He eats other things and you know what if this might sound crazy but I say if you can only get your son to take the tenex with ice cream DO IT. It's still a milk product and if he's so skinny that's not so bad. Maybe try to get lower sugar ice cream. I know it's a bad habit to start but when my son was too thin from the meds my doctor told me to let him have ice cream before bedtime. Now it is a hard habit to cut out not that he's getting a bit heavy but you do what you need to for now to get the meds into him. You only have to give a small cup so it's not like he's getting tons of it for breakfast. Sorry about your mornings I can relate I really feel for you. It does get better. And also my son was not completely potty trained until just after 4. We did not have such a great preschool so that was tough too. I'm guessing taking him out to restaurants is impossible too we had that problem too. Now it's nice to be able to take him places and have him acting appropirately for the most part in public.

Joejoesmom~ How old is your son now? You are correct, we cannot take him to restaurants! Out of the question! Sometimes we take the kids to this really nice McDonalds later at night..they love it, it has a super nice play area and we are usually the only ones there. He also has major issues with constipation! We have him on 1 tsp to 1 tbsp of MiraLax daily. Still has the problems though. In fact, today he's having trouble! It's such a pain to deal with! He doesn't let me change his diaper so I have to force him to let me change him! Ugh, can't wait till he's potty trained. But yeah, there are MANY places we cannot take him right now unfortunately...it's just NOT worth the trouble, because there is always trouble when we take him places. It's actually been alot easier with him having a broken leg! I can at least keep him in the cart at the grocery store! He can't crawl out right now. He's a screamer too, like when we wash his hair he screams the whole time about the water in his eyes. He has some mild sensory issues I think. He flips out unpredictably sometimes.

I am going to end up giving him the morning ice cream. Maybe just a spoonful each morning after he eats his breakfast, then he will think it's a treat. I told my 6 year old daughter about it tonight, so she said she has to get a spoonful of ice cream too after breakfast! I said okay, whatever it takes!

Thanks for the reply! I will check back here in a few days to let everybody know if I've noticed anything or not!

Tomorrow is the big day...his first dose of Tenex. Thanks for the thoughts on how to administer it. I actually think ice cream would work best but I can't give him ice cream for breakfast! I am supposed to give it in the a.m. DRAT! I guess I will buy some yogurt tonight, and grind the pill up and mix it up in the yogurt.

I am totally new to all of this ADHD stuff. Is there any place on this site I can regularly go to for general questions or support? He's almost 4. I just KNEW when he was 2 that something wasn't, I don't want to say normal, but I just knew there was something else going on, but was just hoping it was the terrible 2's. Couldn't wait till he was 3, but at 3 it only got worse! He's totally out of control. He's like a wild animal. I did manage to get him into an ECSE preschool and he's doing good, gets alot of one on one attention that he wouldn't get in regular preschool with the bigger classes. And he is not potty trained yet either...was doing really good until he broke his leg last month, so I stopped the training till his cast comes off. Anyway, he's very difficult to deal with! I tell his doctor that I am not qualified to deal with him!! He wakes up every morning, EVERY morning screaming bloody murder, just unhappy and mad and he will scream and yell at me or his dad for a half hour. Very unmanageable. Can't sit still to eat at all. Hits, throws things at us, runs off if he gets a chance, extremely impulsive behavior. "Normal" peers who have been around him run from him. He's too overwhelming, always in their face, invading their space. I've had him evaluated by the ADHD Institute in town last summer and he was given a preliminary DX of ADHD and ODD, preliminary because of his age they couldn't do regular testing.

Anyway, please let me know where I can hover around on this site to get support and learn more about this...do I have to be in a different forum, etc.

Thanks Ladies!

Also, he also has problems with gag reflex! When he was a baby, he would choke like once a week on stuff, usually mashed bananas! I can't tell you how many times I had to whack him on the back! He's still very prone to gagging. In fact, just this week, twice this week, at breakfast, he gagged and threw up his breakfast. Frosted Flakes and on another day, scrambled eggs. He absolutely HATES to eat. He will rarely if ever feed himself. So either his dad or I end up feeding him otherwise the kid won't eat. Also, we have to catch him and get him back in his chair numerous times at each mealtime. He just cannot sit still. He's small for his age, very skinny, I think in the 10-25 percentile. He's absolutely OBSESSED with liquids, usually milk. When he's hungry, he never asks for food, ever, only milk or juice. And when he gets it, he slams the entire thing in one shot every single time. Drinks it down till it's gone. I've never seen anything like it. I give him Carnation and Pediasure occasionally because I'm so worried about his interest in food and I want him to get some sort of nutrition but that stuff is very expensive.

pookergirl39773.3166435185pookergirl:

You have a lot going on with this kid. So let's go really basic.

The food concerns me the most because if he's malnourished, nothing else is going to work.

Have you had him tested for lactose intolerance? He may CRAVE milk but he may not be getting an nutrition out of it forcing him to crave more of it.

I wonder if he has an h-pylori ulcer, diabetes or some other food-related ailment ?

I'd go with trying to figure out the physical problem around food, first.

One step at a time

Thanks. It's a long story, but to sum up, I had him evaluated for sensory integration stuff related to food and they tried to do a swallowing study on him but they couldn't get him to eat food with white barium slathered all over it, so the study was inconclusive. She thought that it showed that when he swallows, all of the food doesn't go down, only some of it, and that he is at risk for aspiration pneumonia but since they couldn't get a full evaluation because he refused to eat the stuff and because he wouldn't hold still, they just terminated the study halfway through.

The pediatrician says he's not worried about his size because he's always followed the same percentile pretty much since he was 1 or so. He said he would be concerned if he were to drop off the chart altogether.

Interestingly, when he broke his leg last month, they did labs at the hospital and his blood sugar was 140. Nobody contacted me about it, but I got a copy of the labs and when I saw that I called his pediatrician to ask about it. I thought it was high and his great grandmother had diabetes. The doctor's office then did a fingerstick when I took him in for the flu vaccination and it was 66. They said they were not concerned at all, so I guess that's not an issue. Personally I think 66 is low! I'm going to ask his doctor about it when I take him in for his 4 year checkup next month.

Thanks for the post!

I am going to try to switch him over to Silk Vanilla Soy Milk I think. It's just so expensive though for the amount he drinks! He has an older sister who drinks nothing but milk and water. No juice, no fruit drink, nothing else, so we go through ALOT of milk! I like that the milk he drinks now is whole milk so that he gets all the fat from it. I don't know but I think Silk is low fat soy milk. For the diabetes--have them run a glucose tolerance test. I think they still do them. They check your sugars, then give you this high glucose drink and check again for the difference. It will often show hypoglycemia as well.

What about trying a lactaid tab?

I don't drink juice either so I get that

How's the little fella with soup?

Something healthy you could try is broth. He might get that down?

I like to drink chicken broth in the evening...

I love chicken and beef broth! My dad used to give me that when I was little! Wow. Brings back memories. I don't imagine he'd drink broth but I haven't actually tried that. He doesn't like soup. He will eat those cheap ramen noodles t hough! But I take them out with a fork, cut them up and put them on a plate for him. He eats them with his fingers.

I called the pediatrician today and the nurse called me back. I asked her about the readings and she said 66 is not low and that the doctor is aware of his blood sugar values and thinks they are totally within normal limits for a kid who doesn't eat alot. She said I can have that test but they will poke him several times over several hours and it's no fun for anybody. She said to talk to the doctor about it. Anyway, I felt alot better that Dr. H is not concerned.

I don't know what a lactaid tab is. I'll have to google it. I can't wait to give him the Tenex tomorrow morning! I hope I can get the entire half a pill into him. It will be so interesting to see if it changes anything.

Thank you so much for the input!

I sure hope it goes well with the Tenex.

I'll cross my fingers for you

Thanks!

my son didnt have probs swallowing a pill but maybe u can try to put it in applesauce or yogurt and give him the spoon full that has the half pill in it. that way u know he got it. or maybe even ice cream if he will eat that. i would just put it in something like that but mkae sure he has the 1st spoon full. good luck.

kim

ds has been taking the 1mg at night since we started this post and since alllergies was ruled out we started the morning dose last weekend of .5mg. i was just wondering, even though it takes 6-8 weeks to fully work, would u say the tics were less frequent after about a week or so or do they just drop dramatically around 6-8 weeks? ds tics seem to be the same frequency and if they arent going to slow down or stop from tenex i would rather he didnt have the extra med. any advice would be apreciated!!

kim

I looked through my journal and it looks like it was about 6 weeks.

the tenex does make them have more of an appetite. with my son though it was just him going back to eating normal. the vyvanse made him only hungry at night when it wears off. he is still hungry then more than for a normal kid but now he also eats through out the day. one day we forgot his vyvanse and he ate ALL day! i dont know if that was due to the tenex or just no vyvanse. i have heard though that it gives them there apetite back. for my sont thats a good thing b/c he is 4' 2" and 50 lbs so he needs weight. all his pants end up getting too short but still dont fit in the waste and his 3 yr old brother is catching up to him in weight fairly quick. that would suck if they gave your daughter the placebo. but if not it sounds like a good plan. i think it should help with her sniffing tic. i know exactly what u mean about it driving u crazy!! i hope u get it all sorted out. also i have only heard of kids that have just been on only tenex. i have heard that it for most it isnt enough. but i think if your dd adhd isnt very severe it could work for her. my ds has adhd combined and it would for sure not be enough for him to have it alone. i hope someone can come on here that has tried that and give u some advice. i dont remember which symptoms it helps with but i know it wasnt all of them. maybe someone has posted it in other posts on here.

kim

Hi Ladies,

My son will be 4 around X-mas and I have just gotten an Rx for Tenex for him. I was instructed to give half of a 1 mg pill in the morning only, so I have to break the pill in half. My son has MAJOR issues with eating, so I am really concerned about HOW I am going to get a half of a pill down him. They said don't mix it with a liquid which is typically the only acceptable oral intake for him, because then he might not get the entire dose. They said semi-solid food is best. Can I get some responses from the moms out there as to how you ended up administering this medication? Hopefully someone out there has a kid like mine! Thanks so much! I have to start the med on Saturday morning.

thank u horse mom!! i will try to be patient!

kim

Hi rosalie68, I am new to this board, but was wondering the status of your ds with the vyvanse and tenex combo. My dd is getting ready to participate in a study for tenex and was hoping I can get some more info on the tic issues. My dd has developed a sniffing/snorting tic since she has been on the vyvanse. She has been on Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall, Strattera and the Daytrana patch. The Daytrana patch I think was the best for us, but it irratated her skin and then we couldn't find the 20mg patches anywhere!! So that is when we switched to the Vyvanse. The study that she is getting ready to participate in is for the drug tenex, but I guess they are trying to come out with a longer lasting form of it so that people can use it by itself for ADHD. I really want to try Strattera again, but since it takes a while to build up in the system, my dh thinks it's best to try that in the summer when we have the time because if we did it now I would be having the school call me every hour on the hour and I can't leave work that much especially with the economy the way it is, I need my job. Any info you have is appreciated.

hi. his sniffing tic is all the way gone now. the cough is mostly gone but every now and then he will do it. but sometime he doesnt do it for days. i would say thats pretty good! im not so sure that it helps with the adhd though. the vyvanse isnt working as good as it was a few months ago and we werent able to lower the dose of the vyvanse when we added tenex. some of his impulsivity has come back and has some attention issues at school. nothing severe though. he doesnt seem to be hyper at school neither and that was something that we struggled with b4 meds. so maybe the tenex helps a little with hyperness? or maybe its the vyvanse. not sure. but as far as his tics they are pretty much gone! no new ones or anything. it did take quite a while to work fully though for the cough. the sniff went away mostly with just the 1 mg at night. the cough took a few weeks of being on .5 in the morning and 1 mg at night. also it does make them tired. the vyvanse kept my ds up at night and he had to have melatonin to get to sleep. now with the tenex we dont have to use melatonin. it wont put him right out but it does slow him down. if he is acting very hyper(rebound) i will give it to him a little early to calm him down. otherwise i wait until about an hour before bedtime. if u have any other questions please just let me know. i will answer anything i can. good luck to u.

kim

We ended up switching my son from Concerta to Focalin with Tenex 2 x per day. The Focalin was 10 mg for the first month but he was awake many nights until 3:00 a.m. So we cut it back to 5 mg and we are giving that a try now. I was wondering has anyone found that their child gained weight on Tenex? My son was never skinny he was stocky ans short but not fat either. Now he is getting a bit of a belly. I'm wondering if the Tenes has increased his appetite too much or maybe he just needs a good growth spurt. He is shorter than most other boys in his class he has definately not grown much in height over the past year. Now his shoe size has increased and even clothing but all the jeans I buy him are way too long now. And I'm finding the waist of all jeans are just way too tihgt for him. He used to wear slim then I tired the regular fit and now i need to go shopping for husky. I'm getting worried he might get fat from Tenex. Now it has been a mriacle medicaiton for his moods and bad temper. The Focalin I'm still not too sure if it's doing much. With it only being 5 mg I don't think it can do much. I would love to hear the update on kids who only take Tenex. We have thought about doing that but now with the weight gain I'm a bit worried to go that route.

Thanks so much Kim. I am willing to try anything at this point. My dd has the worst sniffing/snorting tic and it drives me up the wall!! I thought maybe it was allergies, so I took her to the allergist and eventhough she is allergic to a lot, the allergist said that the sniffing/snorting is a tic!! My dd is on the 30mg of Vyvanse and probably needs to be on a higher dose, but I think the next dose (50mg) is going to be to high, so I rather deal with where she is now rather than her being a zombie. I take her today to start the work up for this study that she is going to participate in. We can drop out anytime if we don't feel it is doing anything for her. The good thing about this study is they will pay for her Vyvanse and the tenex and then also pay me 50.00 everytime I take her to an appointment. So I don't think we are hurting anything by trying. My only worry is that she will get stuck on placebo!! I really need something to stop the rebound effect and the fact that it makes them tired is an added incentive for us. My dd stays up at night reading or watching tv just to get to sleep. Thanks for your help.

Amy

Joejoesmom, does the Focalin not curb his appetite? My daughter was on Concerta and we had to take her off because she developed a really bad eye tic. My dd would pick at her eyes like she was trying to take out sleepy eye and it got so bad that she almost made herself bleed. Her teacher called me crying asking me to take her off!! I haven't tried the Tenex, but I am curious to see what other, who are just strictly on tenex, say about it!! My dd needs to gain some weight so if that is a side effect for tenex, I am all for it although I hope that is not the case for you and your son!!

This is just an update...it's going into week 4 of the Tenex and there has been absolutely no positive change in Jonah's behavior or personality whatsoever...it's exactly the same, not worse, not better. He continues to get into trouble and harass his siblings all day long. Two mothers that I know suggested I try neurofeedback, or biofeedback, so I am making an appt for him this month. He's going to this place: http://michiganbrain.com/home.html If this works for him, I will definitely let you all know because I will absolutely notice if this helps...he's so overwhelmingly hard to deal with currently that I will be able to notice the slightest change. But I hope that it's much more than a slight change! I am still keeping him on the Tenex although both of the pediatricians (our personal and the ADHD pediatrician) said Tenex is a fast acting med and I should have notice a difference the same day. I figure I will keep giving it until we surpass the 8 week mark just to be sure. He's taking half milligram twice a day right now.

so i called the dr today. i told her all the things he has been doing and then asked her about lowering vyvanse and adding in tenex. she laughed and asked me if i was reading over her shoulder and then asked me where i found all this info out lol. it felt good to know what i am talking about and know what i want to do with the meds. she gave me a script for 1mg at night and .5 in the morning. she wants me to do the night first and then next week add the morning dose. is this what your drs have had u do? ds teacher waited for me to pick him u after school to talk to me b/c he distracted the class all day with his sniffing and coughing. i had already told her this morning that he would most likely do it all day since she had noticed it last week and that we would be changing meds. kind of annoying that she had to tell me about it again! she did say that kids were making comments. ds said they told him he was annoying b/c he was sniffing. i feel really bad about it. i hope this works fast. i know it takes 6-8 wks but i hope it slows them down soon. we couldnt get the 20mg of vyvanse b/c the warehouse was even out of them so it wouldve took over 2 weeks or more to get them. so we got 30mg again. im thinking of opening the caps and dumping some out. not sure how much would have to go to equal 20mg but i think a lower dose will help minimize tics. i do want to wait for the tenex to get in his system to help with the other adhd stuff b4 lowering the stim. ds has been anxious about playing outside lately b/c he got stung by a bee last summer on his mouth and he knows bees are outside. he is terrified if he see a fly and thinks its a bee. he barley ever wants to go outside. i understand why he is scared but he has to play outside sometime! i hope this will help him be more relaxed over that fear. that would also be great if it helped him sleep at night b/c he has been taking melatonin the last 2 weeks or he is up past 11pm. thank u all for the info. i will keep u informed in how ds reacts to it! any more info would be appreciated!

kim

The dosing sound reasonable to me - but I can only speak from our experience. We did .5 mg at night for a week, then added the .5 mg in the AM for a total of 1 mg. When we increased 5 months later, we added .5 mg at night and then increased another .5 in the AM a couple of weeks later.

We used to use melatonin prior to the tenex and use it only occasionally. I was told it was safe to use the two together if needed.
My dd has been on guanfacine since April. It does help with the
hyperactivity/impulsivity. She was VERY tired when we started it and we had
to increase it in 1/4mg increments. It does not work well enough for her to
use it alone but it has helped with rebound and some of the anxiety caused
by the stimulants. One example is that my dd bites her fingernails A LOT
when on adderall. SHe still bites them but less with the guanfacine on board.
It's been a little hard to read the effects of the guanfacine because it is
subtle. Also I don't think we really saw the full effects for 6-8 weeks. HTHI concur - the effects are subtle with my daughter as well - and I read through my old journal and it did take 6-8 weeks before we started seeing the effects.

It was things like - being more comfortable with the girls on her basketball team - where she was very tentative the first 2/3 of the season, more willing going to her best friends house after school (before she would also be hesitant to go to her house), less fingernail bitting, just more even keel and bedtime was easier - though it doesn't knock her out - she still stays up way to late but she's not bouncing off the walls. She's reading until all hours of the morning....

I should add that guanfacine also helped decrease my child's anxiety, but not enough of a difference not to need Zoloft.

You asked about protocol of starting the med. The dr. had my child start just PM dose of .5 mg for one week, and then we added .5 mg in AM and PM. Then, we changed to 1 mg PM and .5 mg AM for one week, and then increased to 1 mg AM and PM and that's where he stayed. Like others said, he was very tired for a few days, but then that went away.

The tenex has helped my dd with her fear of bees, not totally gone but not
such a strong reaction anymore. My dd is still taking .5mg am and .5mg
pm. We started with .5 at night for 1 week and then added .5mg in the
morning but she was REALLY tired so we had to cut back to .25mg and go
up slowly from there. She could probably use more but we've tried to
increase a couple of times and she is tired and it increases her appetite
almost too much. Good luck. I do think it has smoothed things out for my
dd. JO5839693.8649884259

thank u so much for sharing all of your experiences. they really help us out in knowing what to expect. ds took 1 mg last night and tonight. i think he was asleep by 8:30 so thats good. we give it to him around 7pm. i dont think i noticed much of a difference in his tics but im hoping they will start to lessen pretty soon. we couldnt get the lower 20mg dose of vyvanse so i opened all of the capsules and dumped a little bit out. im sure they arent down to 20 but would guess maybe 25?? anyhow they are less than 30mg and so im hoping that will also help with his tics. i also think it will start to work better when we can give him the .5 in the morning too. im thinking i might wait until next weekend so he can be at home if he gets really tired from the morning dose. thanks again we will keep u all posted on how ds is doing.

kim

Interesting about the Tenex because we were handed out literature at an ADHD meeting and it specifically said it works with in an hour. Which is what it should do as a blood pressure medication, they are supposed to work shortly after you take them. I don't see how it could be any different for a child. Anyway, maybe my son just needs a larger dose, which we were work on VERY soon! I found this online. I tried to copy and paste but it won't let me so I will paste the link in. It's from a book about psychiatric medications for kids and this link will take you right to the lowdown on Tenex. Apparently there are both short acting and a long acting forms of Tenex. When I have more time I'm gonna keep researching it!

http://books.google.com/books?id=8FNxxOQPrgcC&pg=PA257&a mp;lpg=PA257&dq=tenex+short+acting+medication&source =web&ots=7XvFzDdvca&sig=mu_vV4nMMoJVJg4k4bANTDEhF8U& amp;hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=re sult

hi i just wanted to add that tenex does take about 6-8 weeks to notice full effect. i think some ppl start to see some improvement a little sooner but that max benifts would be at about the 1-2 month mark. for my son it took longer bc he only had 1 evening dose for a month or 2 and that wasnt enough but as soon as we added the morning one it was about a month later that we noticed full improvement with his tics. it still makes him tired at night and he has had it for a few months now. if he didnt take tenex we would have to give him something else for him to sleep at night bc his vyvanse keeps him up. The doctor I have the most contact with is my children's pediatrician. He doesn't feel comfortable maintaining the RX, even though he prescribed it, after talking it over with another well respected semi retried pediatrician in our area that specializes in ADHD only. The ADHD pedatrician isn't covered by my insurance and he only treats kids for ADHD, not medical things. I am trying to find a child psychiatrist that would monitor my son on the Tenex but I can't find any. So, in a nutshell, the only one I'm dealing with is my pediatrician who has never prescribed it before and only prescribed because I kept pushing him so finally he had a phone consultation with the ADHD doctor in our area. My son, Jonah, has been on it for 5 days and there's been absolutely no difference. From the literature I have on Tenex and children, if it were going to work, I would have seen something by now. That is why it has to be the wrong dose. I am going to bump it up to 1 mg, 0.5 mg twice a day on Sunday. Anyway, the child psychiatrist I was trying to get into, his nurse is the one who said he probably wouldn't continue it because he doesn't think it's safe for young kids and that he'd probably switch him to a stimulant. If it's not working anyway, why not go with the recommendations of the primary doctor on the case and change the script? Do you mean change the dose, i.e. up the dose, or change the Rx to a stimulant? Thanks.What does the primary doctor recommend?

I gather s/he is not comfortable with Tenex...

I just noticed last night that the paperwork we got at an ADHD medication seminar/class we took says that the onset after administration of Tenex is 30-45 minutes and the duration is 4-8 hours. It also says begin in the evening, may need 3 times daily. Interesting. I still haven't noticed any changes in my son but at the lowest dose, I don't expect to I guess.

I noticed changes with tenex within a few days for my sone. It does make kids tired a bit but they usually get used to it over time. When we increased my son's dose from .5 - 2 times per day to now he takes 1 - 2 times per day. I still think he could use more I gave him an extra half the other day. We are finding that the 5 mg of Focalin seems to low and doesn't last 10 hours it's more like 8 hours. Now our doctor told us the pharmacy can make up a 8 mg pill it only comes in 5, 10 or so on. I'm thinking though it would be difficult to find a pharmacy who does that. The doctors always seem to think things are easy to get done and then we go to the pharmacy and they give us difficulties about everything.

The reason to start in the evening is to reduce the potential for sleepiness when first starting this med. After the body is used to it, the sleepiness should go away. My younest takes 2mg am and at night with the option for 1/2gm after school dose. We were told that we would work the dose up to the best one for her with the max being 3mg up to 3 times a day. We have used it with stumulants with good success.

I talked to a nurse today who said the Tenex shouldn't have to "build up" in the system, that it's an antihypertensive and should work shortly after administration. That correlates with the paperwork I have on it so maybe he's just not at the correct dose yet.

Interestingly, the nurse was going to refer me to a psychiatrist because my pediatrician prescribed it but doesn't feel comfortable maintaining the prescription. He prescribed it after phone consultation with another pediatrician who is known in this area to be an expert in children with ADHD. Anyway, the nurse said that she spoke to the child psychiatrist about seeing my son and the Tenex and he said that he only prescribes Tenex for older children and he doesn't feel comfortable prescribing it to younger kids because of the dangerous side effects. Does anyone know what this is about? I told her that the ADHD pediatrician thought it was the best choice for a younger child and that he said it was safe. She said well the psychiatrist disagrees.

I researched Tenex online and I can't really find any really worrisome side effect. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

pookergirl39778.7438310185My son was walking out to my car today to go to the store with me. Lately he swings between my car and my husbands. Well, I tell him all the time to stop but today he would not. He fell and I heard this terrible scream. I ran around the car and there he was flat on his face. He could not breath he had knocked the wind out of himself. He fell flat on his stomache, chest and chin. I had to yell at him to keep trying to take a breath. He was trying to run away from me. It was awful he finally started to breath but now his chin has a terrible bruise. The accidents never seem to stop. My nerves are snapped tonight.I don't understand what that nurse told you it doesn't make much sense. Unless it's the fact that your son is only 4 I think you said. My son started tenex at 8 years old and is 9 now. I make our psychiatrist take his blood pressure once per month at our appointments. Both our pediatrican and psychiatrist seem to think tenex is fine. I also pushed and got an EKG done recently and covered by our medical. That was all fine too. Maybe you need to see another doctor to get a third opinion and then go from there. It's a pain to have to do that though I know. Good luck with that.pookergirl:

You've got too many cooks in the kitchen. WHO is the doctor you have the most contact with?

Hi all,

Well it's day 4 of the Tenex and there's been no change whatsoever in my son, other than he might be possibly a little sleepy during the day. I went with putting the crushed half-pill in ice cream each morning. He doesn't know there's medication in it but he still refuses to eat it! We have to repeatedly threaten to put him in his room if he doesn't eat his ice cream! It's only about 3 bites total.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. I hope it starts to work soon. I've been listening to him scream and cry at the babysitter for the last hour!

How long does it say on the packet before the Tenex does anything? If he's sleepy, that's something....

Of course he's suspicious, when was the last time you gave him ice cream for breakfast?

He's not stupid, that's for sure

Good luck and keep us posted!
Tenex needs to build up in your system. It takes 6-8 weeks to reach it's full effectiveness. Most people start low and then increase after week. We did .5 mg in the AM and then after a week, did .5 mg morning/evenings. My daughter's current dosage is 1 mg 2x a day. Great to know. Thanks! My son had terrible problems swallowing pills when he first started he was 6 now he's 9. Now he swallows two pills together. I kind of shutter when he does that as I feel like a pill pusher seeing how easy it is for him. But in the beginning he would refuse all pills. In fact as a baby he had a terrible gag reflux and it did not stop until he started the ADHD meds. So I feel they somehow helped him with that. His gagging was not just with pills but creamy types of food things like milk or yougrt mashed potatoes could really set him off. It was in his head not an allergy as it could happen with any food really but the creamy things were the worst. Anyhow, he was on the patch at first but when it started to irritate his skin way too much we switched to pills. Now the way he got used to pills was by me giving him the really tiny M&M's I think they call them minis. We practiced him trying to swallow them and of course he loved them. Now I don't know if you have seen the tenex pill but it is really really small. And I made a big deal the first time he was able to swallow a pill and we clapped and made such a fuss and told him how proud we were. So maybe try that and see if you can make it like a game with the M&Ms or the doctor suggested the little sprinkle type cake toppings in different sizes to try at first to get him used to them. Now someone asked about the Focilin curbing my son's appetite. He is only on 5 mg of Focilin and .5 two times per day of tenex. So I think the Focilin give him a sore tummy a bit but not enough to cause major eating problems like some other things he was on. I'd like to know where that study is being done for kids with just tenex as I do think my son could possibly get by with just tenex. His problems were bad temper and of course all the other focusing problems with ADHD but the biggest things were temper and social problems which are now amzaing with tenx. It is only when it wears off that he blows his stack a bit and that's usually if I forget to give him his tenex by 4:00 p.m.