Help with Strattera??

[melissapark73]

Hi! I just joined this site, but have been struggling with a son with ADHD for the past 4 years. He is now 13 and, like many of your kids, had poor results on various stimulants (Ritalin, Adderall, Vyvanse). For years while on stimulants our son was highly irritable, had episodes of rage, hallucinations, etc. We thought he had bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia until we finally took him off the stimulants this summer! Now his grades are worsening and we are considering Strattera. However, he is prone to depression and anxiety (for which he takes Lexipro), and we are very worried about the high instances of suicidal ideation in teens on Strattera. Has anyone had a teen or preteen on Strattera? If so, did they experience the depression/suicidal ideation or related side effects? Did anti-depressants while on Strattera help with those side effects? Any help anyone can offer before we start him would be greatly appreciated!!

[Harrisma]

My 14 year old went thru all those medications and there were to many side effects. We have Kaiser and I ended up having him see a counselor and a Psychiatrist(because the pediatrician was not comfortable prescribing a different type of med, so he was referred to the mental health department. It might be different with other insurances. He is now on Intuniv a blood pressure medicine. They have studies showing that it helps calm the frontal part of the brain down for ADHD kids. So far, we are 4 weeks into it and he seems to not be so impulsive and says that he is able to focus more. The only side effects is some nausea, maybe headaches and they will monitor their blood pressure. Worth a try to look into it

[jlynch21]

We tried our 16 year old on Strattera for 8 weeks, it didn't work and caused depression and anxiety. His doctor stopped the medication and put him back on a stimulant. 3 weeks later we are still recovering, depression is improving but anxiety is not. He hasn't attended school in 3 weeks. The only change we made was the Strattera, so it seems it was a major factor in this problem since he hasn't experienced depression before or this level of anxiety.