Straterra-Anyone else out there with BAD experience? Good?

Overall, my son did well switching to Strattera but it didnt help teh impulsivity as much as the Adderall XR. For him, that’s not a huge behavior concern although it is part of the picture with his schoolwork

I have heard that Strattera is a better choice for adults and girls which tells me it works better for inattentive ADHD(which my son is)

This is all info/opinions gleaned from various boards BTW, not any ‘official source’.

What I can say with certainty is that Strattera did NOT help the weight issue. My son still had little appetite and poor weight increase-no different than with the Adderall XR :(

Thanks. That is what we have found. The inattentiveness is OK with the combination but the impulsiveness and hyperactivity seem so much worse.

He is seeing a Child Psychiatrist right before school starts and I am hoping for more guidance, the pediatrician has handled his meds since the dx by a Child Psychologist 5 yaers ago.

Interesting to hear that your son did not gain weight after the change since this was the entire reason for switching.

Could his increase in weight mean he needs to increase the Strat, since its dosage is weight-based?

You would think that could be the case, but they want him to gain weight. This has been an issue all of his life though, not just since meds. He is 12, almost 5 feet tall, and 66 pounds (but my daughter is 11, the same height, and 71 pounds-duh they’re thin!) The reason for keeping him on the Adderall, though at a lower dose, was that the Strattera was not doing anything for the impulsiveness/hyperactivity. Unfortunately we cannot get in to the a Child Psychiatrist until right before Labor Day. That may be his solution, to up the Strattera. If it works, that is great with me! I am all for anything that works.

My thinking is still, if something was working, why mess with it? I think all the backlash over the use of stimulants is beginning to effect the judgement of the pediatricians. In the meantime my son is a Guinea Pig-sc__ the Strattera and give him back the Adderall!!!

To find out more info on stratttera (which is very weight dependent and could cause mood issues if on too low or too high) go to:

http://millermom.proboards23.com

Lots of info on strattera there.

Thanks. Lots of information when I went on the site. Monday was a good day, Tuesday stunk and Wednesday was worse. Thursday was good. Tonight……………well, I’m posting does that say anything.

I was given Strattera and ended up in the hospital for 5 days due to a severe case of gastritis that they believe is due to the medicine. My stomach spasmed and I could not stop throwing up.

My 7 year old son (at the time) tried Strattera. To get any affect, we had to go to a dosage that made him fall asleep all the time. On top of that, he would throw up within 30 minutes - no matter the dose. The Dr. had us try it for over a month to see if the side effects would lessen - with no luck. He is ADD and it did not help.

We have two close families that also have tried this medication and they also had very negative results.

I spoke with my Dr. who is a specialist in the field of medication and she said that the professionals were very disappointed with the lack of positive results and the amount of negative side effects.

We do have one friend who’s child is doing ok on Strattera but their daughter does have frequent stomach pains since starting the medication. They are thinking about changing again.

I guess it’s trial and error for everyone.

Hello - it’s been a long time since I posted on a message board, but my daughter recently started taking Strattera. She has been on Concerta for years, but her academics haven’t been so hot and social life….forget about it! So her dr. and I agreed to try the Strattera, after no meds all summer (no lectures, please, I like her better w/out). The initial dose looked promising, such as less oppositional, more initiative so Dr. went to the 1.2 mg per lb dose. It’s not been long enough to tell, but I’ll keep y’all updated. School started Thurs, my dd started high school…

Oh yeah, almost forgot why I came here in the first place! :roll: I’m looking for help with time management techniques I can share with my teen. If I had a program or guide….otherwise it’s the blind leading the blind. I cope pretty well these days, [u]one[/u] good thing about reaching middle age, but I don’t have the patience I need to coach her. Ack

The ADHD meds are not interchangeable/easily interchangeable at all. Some persons respond to Ritalin yet fail on Dexedrine or respond to Dexedrine yet fail on Ritalin (and so on).

If one switches from Adderall XR to Strattera, the Strattera will work better or worse than the Adderall XR; it cannot work identically since it is a different chemical structure (ADHD drug). Be very careful of anyone who falsely promotes the false idea that all the ADHD meds are easily interchangeable as that’s only a big fib it seems to me.

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[quote=”Beverly”]After 5 years of successful treatment with Adderall (being the XR the last 2 years), my son (12) was switched to Strattera in February when it became eveident that he needed his annual dosage increase. This was due to a flatline on his weight for a year. The Strattera was increased as the Adderall was tapered off. We hit a point at 20mg Adderall that he coould not go any lower. We ended up with 40mg Strattera and 20 mg Addreall XR. This worked until the beginning of April when his anger went off the richter scale. He did gain 6 pounds within 4 months of the decrease in his Adderall.

Anyone out there experienced with switching from a successful stimulant treatment program to Strattera? Or any experience at all, good bad or otherwise?[/quote]

My son will be 14 in a month. We tried him on the Adderall on two different occasions. Both were terrible!! Now he is on Strattera, Prozac, and Ritalin. He still has some nasty days but I think it is just adolence at this point. (I hope). Once school starts in two weeks we will be able to tell more. We have been playing the medication routine for about 1 year. I did not realize that my son was ADHD until he was almost 13. We had a difficult time trying to figure out that he had this until he was getting so violent and withdrawn. Anyway, it is true that every medication affects each person differently. Good Luck.

My daughter had a huge problem with stimulants. Lost weight, anxiety, poor appetite, weight loss, stomach problems. She was switched to Strattera and showed an immediate improvement. The Strattera seemed to be the ticket. She still has a problem remembering things but overall seems to be doing better. She seems less depressed—maybe because she isn’t feeling sick all of the time. .

My psychiatrist warned that children often experience huge mood swings when they first start Strattera. This was the case for my daughter who had huge anger issues/irritability in the first 30-45 days. At least part of this was also due to the fact that we were moving into a new apartment in a new neighborhood at the time—she has never taken to huge upheavals in her existence well. Nonetheless, we persevered and she is the experiencing the most normal existence since her diagnosis. We have tried Concerta, Addrerall , Concerta with Remeron, Ritalin and it was all the same—the stimulants cause her to lose weight, give her stomach problems and keep her from sleeping.

Interesting what you said about Strattera working better for girls than boys. Anyway, that was my experience with Strattera.—hope it helps

My daughter has been on STR since February ‘03 and I think it may be time to increase her dose as we are starting to see the annoying pattern I had all but forgotten.

My daughter is now 10, about 58 inches and weighs about 78 pounds,
actually the same weight as she was when she started on STR as she
lost quite a bit of weight initially due to the tummy side effects,
an appendectomy and largely increased dance activities. She
currently takes 40 mg which was our original dose when we reached her
therapeutic level.

We have had large success with STR up until the last few months, at
first I didn’t realize that what I was seeing was increased ADHD
symptoms, was thinking we were just hitting the pre-teen blues - it’s
interesting how us ADHD parents are always willing to take the fall
for bad behavior….went down the path of what am I doing wrong. But
the truth is in the charts…started having her teacher chart her
behavior and it is getting worse at school and I have seen a marked
change at dance as well - more blurting, more off-task silliness,
more spacing out.

Is there anyone out here that started on STR way back that is
experiencing or has experienced anything similar with a girl..and
have they successfully increased dosage? I am praying that this is
all we need to do, but fear that it may just be body chemistry and we
will have to go in search of the next answer…..

Thanks!

We had horrible results with Strattera. We were told that they do not have good success using it for young children. Although she is eight she only weighs 42 pounds so we think that may be why it was so horrible. We used it for a week and switched back to Concerta.

Hi. I’m new to the board. This is my first post.

My son has been on Strattera since late summer. He currently takes nothing else. He is six years old and his major ADHD problem is inattentiveness, but he is also somewhat impulsive and has trouble controlling his emotions when he experiences frustration.

We noticed that his overall attention span improved within three days of starting the medication, and progressively got better over about 1 week. But that is where the improvements stopped. He still does not have the attention span necessary to get him through a full school day. And we have seen no improvement in his impulsive behavior. The emotional outbursts are fewer, but that is probably because he is better able to concentrate and doesn’t experience as much frustration.

We will be asking his neurologist to supplement the Strattera with a stimulant when we next visit her. It’s just not helpful enough on its own even though we have played a bit with the dosage. I’m hopeful that stimulants will help. We have played a little with caffeine, and notice that he is happier, more cooperative, and less impulsive when he’s had some caffeine.

Anecdotally, lots of doctors are seeing that Strattera is less effective for most kids with ADHD than stimulants. It seems to work best for those who have not done well on stimulants. Many are trying the approach you are considering of combining Strattera with a stimulant. It may result in using a lower dose of each medication.