adderral question

[SunshineF]

May be a dumb question, but how do you know if adderral is working? Our son started a low dose and we’ve seen small changes (maybe) but nothing is drastically different. Being new to this, we’re trying to gauge if it’ll ever be obvious like “oh yeah this Med is a game changer. he’s so much better on it” or if we’ll always be searching for signs of improvement?

[Onthemove1971]

Thanks for sharing. Great to hear you are seeing a positive change. We were told medication should decrease about 60% of the symptoms of ADHD.

The rest is done with modification of parenting, 504 plan/IEP and therapy.

We could tell when it was working becuase we did not have to constantly tell him to stop doing things.

We are changing medications and can see when he doesn't take it we have to stay on him about everything.

Hope this helps. If you change a dose and the behavior stops you know it is right.

Best to you during this hard time.

[SunshineF in reply to Onthemove1971]

thanks! I guess we’re just not sure if it’s helping enough. I know the stat is 60% of symptoms but we’re kind of like it may or may not be helping. It’s really hard to tell. Some things seem a little better but others are definitely not. How/when do we know if we need to try another stimulant?

[Onthemove1971 in reply to SunshineF]

I think it is important to understand the "goal" of the type of medication he is taking. Stimulants decrease impulsive behavior: decrease in talking excessively, less "unnecessary" activity, better judgment when decision making, able to control one's self better, etc..If you are looking for all of that and it is not better, it would be a good idea to speak to his doctor and try an increase.

If you are looking to improve other things like focus and mood, most stimulants won't help with this, he would need a non-stimluant like Initiv ( this helped our son a lot with mood and focus).

Hope this helps.. I would try it for 1 week and then make a change if you are feeling like it is needed. The doctor is the best judge of when to change, but stimulants are in and out of their body per dose.

Hope all this helps..

[SunshineF in reply to Onthemove1971]

thank you this is helpful. His impulsivity, loudness and excessive talking is slightly (and I mean slightly) better but it’s definitely still there and noticeable. I think an increase may be what he needs at least to test it out before saying this stimulant isn’t working.

He’s also on a non stimulant guanfacine which seems to help calm him and help him focus but he also gets pretty tired by late afternoon so we’re still assessing that one too.

It’s all so much and hard to discern what effect may be from one Med vs the other.

Hoping this will get easier soon.

Thanks for your reply and happy holidays!

[Onthemove1971 in reply to SunshineF]

Our son has also taken both and has been very successful. Hoping it gets better soon for him. You will know when it is working best.

[SunshineF in reply to Onthemove1971]

thank you!

[SunshineF in reply to SunshineF]

oops one other thing- did you ever notice a dip in energy level w guanfacine or your son being a little bit more emotional?

[Onthemove1971 in reply to SunshineF]

Nope, I really give it a while before I mLe a judgement. We are just changing him off one medication becuase it is to hard to get onto another and we are on break so I will wait at least 2 maybe 3 weeks to decide. Right now it seems to be working.

Once he is in full schedule with school, tutoring and sports I can make a decision.

Our son has endless energy when he is normal ( not sick with a cold). So better to judge then..

Good luck on this journey I hope it all goes well and he/you continue to see positive results.

Our son is 16 years old and a Junior in high school.

[Imakecutebabies in reply to SunshineF]

Not your original question, but if guanfacine is making him tired too early, you should adjust the time he takes it. Our son was taking it at bedtime and then couldn't go to sleep; his psychiatrist said it can take up to 6-8 hours to cause sleepiness so we adjusted to taking it after school and it's much better now. It sounds like your son may be the opposite and taking it too early in the day--try early/mid-afternoon instead of morning.

[SunshineF in reply to Imakecutebabies]

he takes one dose when he wakes up around 7 am give or take and then another dose at 1230 pm. He hits his low from about 330-5ish. But then goes to bed ok around 7pm. It’s the 330-5 grogginess that confuses us. Not sure if that will eventually go away as his morning dose was increased by .5mg.

[Imakecutebabies in reply to SunshineF]

Ah, yeah both of those could do it. Dosage increase always makes my son sleepy for a few days, and the morning fatigue probably hits around that time too. If it doesn't go away, you could maybe see about taking both doses together in the afternoon.

[SunshineF in reply to Imakecutebabies]

Good to know!! Thank you for replying back!

[lll435]

For us, since we only give it for school days - it was hearing from his teacher that he had a great day. And not getting into as much trouble. You can usually see the difference when they can sit down and do the things they couldn't do easily before.

[SunshineF]

thank you!

[MyWanderfulBoy]

My son recently started on adderall.. the first dose prescribed was 5mg XR and there was no noticeable improvement. Then the next month the Dr increased it to 10mg XR and we’re starting to see a difference.. he’s raising his hand in class to share which was the hardest thing for him, he doesn’t need constant prompting and redirection from his teacher to get class work completed, his math tests went from needing to be signed and returned to “Wow, way to go!” His biggest issue was focus and this has made a noticeable improvement.. everything was a distraction before. His pediatrician explained that she’ll keep increasing the dose until most of the ADHD symptoms are lessened. She also said most kids are on 20mg. So we’ll see if he needs another increase, but for now we’re happy with the results we’re seeing.

[SunshineF]

wow that’s such great news! Do you mind sharing how old your son is?

We only started with 2.5 mg - so half the pill. I had no ball park of what kids usually get up to so that’s really helpful. Thank you!

[MyWanderfulBoy in reply to SunshineF]

You’re welcome He’s 6 and in 1st grade.. the youngest in his class.

[Momtrying]

when our son was 10 he started on 10 mg adderall and it was a good dose for him. It did take time for all of us to get used to him on it, bc if we weren’t totally consistent with it then I felt like the days he didn’t have it he was even worse than before he started. He also had a really hard time in the afternoon when he was coming off of the medicine so we eventually start at a 5 mg short acting in the afternoon and that was really wonderful. It helped him get through the rest of the evening without being pretty crazy. As he has grown, we have gone up in his dose and now he currently takes 30 mg in the morning and 5 mg in the afternoon. He’s 14 now. It was a process in the beginning, I think for his body getting used to be on his but but he loves how much it helps him and it’s been really helpful in school. Good luck!

[Hidden]

I’d say definitely make a chart for yourself and write down what your child was exhibiting, behaviours etc that you wanted positive change to. Then you can tick off against those if you see that now these behaviours stopped, that are replaced with positive behaviours. Also make a chart for side effects- look at the list of adverse effects of medication and if your child is suffering from this, let’s say poor sleep, decreased appetite etc. Then you can see better for yourself what medication is doing to your child.

For example for me personally at home the most frustrating ADHD behaviour from my son was chronic oppositional behaviour towards me from my son. So basically whatever I’d ask him to do he’d say he wasn’t doing it or he wouldn’t even say it but I knew he would’t do it. So let’s say morning chores/ he’d go to the bathroom and just mess about and be all over the place and not do anything until shouted at, evening chores- the same, asking him to do his homework, do spellings, read a book from school- he’d always say ‘no’. Also fits when asked to stop doing what he wanted to be doing (fun stuff, playing, watching TV etc) and do what I wanted him to do so let’s say eat dinner or leave for swimming lesson etc. Also no standard behavioural strategies would work with him, let’s say reward system, he’d throw it back at me shouting that he didn’t want this play day anyway, and that he doesn’t care that he’s banned from Nintendo.

First line of treatment for ADHD are stimulants. My son was started on a different stimulant (not the one your son is on), however all I can say, everything was worse on stimulant, all described behaviours at home were even worse on a stimulant medication. Plus my son developed a range of side effects on top of that. Yet the psychiatrist kept giving us big smiles and putting in our mouths how great the medication is working and he was explaining that we just don’t see it because stimulant gets out of my son’s system by the time he finishes school and of course in the morning it doesn’t have time to kick it… Well, we held on to this nonsense for months, and suffering at home, living through hell. At school I couldn’t see any positive difference either- my son fell further behind in maths and also his relations with peers deteriorated whilst on stimulant and he stared being bullied. So that was stimulants medications experience for us.

However since stopping stimulant all together and starting non stimulant-Atomoxetine, my son is more with it, more emotionally stable, better mood, able to follow instruction from the morning he wakes up until the evening (he does his morning and evening chores), he is able to switch from stuff he wants to do like watching his favourite series to having tutor coming to do maths with him and he contains himself politely and doesn’t even grumble. He is able to have a full on day of school and after school sports clubs and then still when I ask him to do spellings in the evening he just does it without oppositional shouting and tearing the sheet (like he used to be). I mean, he will still have moments, but it’s more manageable.

However focus - well that’s not great still, he gets distracted easily. For example my both kids had a week of skiing lessons and the younger son passed and can move to level 2 but my ADHD son didn’t pass. His instructor said that he was always last in the group, watching rescue helicopters and playing with the snow instead… That’s ADHD for you, but my son is also super clumsy as he has dyspraxia so he gets discouraged with stuff seeing how other children do things easily and for him all is very difficult.

There is no magic pill. I know that during winter half term I will put him on 1:1 skiing lessons so he can catch up. I know there is no medication that can fix it and make him stop looking at helicopters etc…

So yes, just as other parent replied, look at the goals you have. What you want to achieve. I mean, I am very realistic that what I have now is best I can get - my son is trying his best, he’s not oppositional and he responds to points chart and rewards system, and the rest is me investing in 1:1 tuition and having 10 times more tuition to achieve what other child would achieve without any extra tuition.

[Juniper52]

Our 14 year old takes Vyvanse (plus Guanfacine & Celexa, and Omega 3), not Adderall, but I can tell you that once the right med/s are on board at the right dosage you should definitely notice a difference.

For us it becomes very clear on the (infrequent) days when he doesn’t take them- like this past weekend where he forgot to take them Saturday and then didn’t get up until 2:00pm on Sunday (Happy New Year, teenager!), so we had him skip… last night he was All. Over. The. Place. Almost literally bouncing off the walls, talking nonstop, bugging his sister to go to the kitchen with him at 11:30 so he could get something to eat (one of the upsides of skipping meds for a couple of days - he actually gets hungry), etc.

So yeah, I’d say consider upping the dose and seeing if that starts to make more of a difference… and if it does, great! If not, you may need to explore other meds. For us it went: Concerta (terrible side effects), Ritalin (no side effects but little to no impact), and then finally Vyvanse, which has been amazing.

Best of luck! You’ll get there.

[tstorm333]

Our son started Adderall XR 5mg when he was 8 years old (2nd grade). We did notice immediate improvements with his focus at school and less behaviors/impulsivity. A little more than a year later, we did increase his dosage to 10mg due to more behaviors at school and inability to focus and complete his work in school. He is 10 years old now and in 4th grade, I am not sure if 10mg is the right dosage currently or if he will need to increase again in the future. But to answer your question, we did notice a pretty significant change right away. However, once the medication wears off (late afternoon/early evening) he does struggle quite a bit with all of his ADHD symptoms (sometimes they seem even worse than before we even started medication). Our pediatrician was managing his medications, but now we are working with a child psychiatrist which has been very helpful. Hopefully you notice some improvements soon. Best of luck to you and your son!