How long does guanfacine take to kick in?

[redmama2]

My 5 year old just started guanfacine after Focalin didn’t seem to help much. He’s on 0.5ml twice a day. He has ADHD and can be violent.

How long does it take for this to kick in usually?

Was this medication helpful in your experience?

[Nylnorealo]

My 11 yr old started taking 1mg twice a day and I did notice the physical violence at home reduce within 2 weeks time. It probably depends on how his body metabolizes it, just keep in touch with his dr and monitor it. Our dr increased it up to 3x a day during the school year. His emotional outbursts unfortunately have remained.

[Cjkchamp]

They had my son on Focalin and guanfacine at the same time. It only seemed to make him very sleepy. He would fall asleep when he got home from school, in the car, all of the time. It also seemed to mask his mood, so he would have outbursts out of nowhere. Our psychiatrist ultimately recommended broad spectrum micronutrients. No more outbursts, personality returned, saved our lives. Highly recommend you look into them. The two companies are Hardy Nutritionals and True Hope. Wishing you the best.

[marinecyan in reply to Cjkchamp]

Hi there - Do you mind sharing which micronutrients you use of those two? Are they chewable/powder or do they have to be swallowed? Any tricks on how to get your child to take them? I'm considering them for my 5 year old.

[Cjkchamp in reply to marinecyan]

We selected Hardy Nutritionals Faily Essential Nutrients. He takes the pill form, but it also comes in powder. Be warned, they are vitamins so they stink like vitamins. When he was younger we called them his stinky pills. He is a good pill taker since he started on ADHD pill form medications early. There is a video on the site showing different techniques for teaching kids to swallow pills. One is using tic tacs to start. We noticed a big difference in his behavior at a half dose which was two pills three times per day. It is a lot of pills. I believe the pill dose may be less with True Hope, but I’m not sure since we never used them. Wishing you the best!

[BoyMom2015 in reply to Cjkchamp]

Which of these do you use or do you use both?

[Cjkchamp in reply to BoyMom2015]

We use Hardy Nutritionals Daily Essential Nutrients.

[Trying1978]

It wasn't very helpful for us. Boy (7), same dose as you. Actually had a weirdly paradoxical anxiety-increasing effect! For our 9 yo (girl), it helped emotionally and with sleep, but she was zombified during the day, so we stopped.

[arrh121]

Guanfacine has been helpful in our situation with our 7yo, we started him on guanfacine over 2 years ago (he now takes guanfacine ER and atomoxetine). It only took a couple of days to notice a difference. We started with immediate release but switched to extended once a day which has worked much better for us and reduced side effects (and let us use a higher dose which was more appropriate in our case). Our son still has plenty of outbursts and there are right and wrong ways for us to interact with him, but he is much improved and doing well overall. Definitely ask your doctor as much as you can, we went through a bunch of rounds of consultation with him about the right meds and doses.

[Lanego]

it was helpful for my son he started at 9. He took 1mg extended release before bed. 2mg made him too tired. He said it helped him focus and sit still. It made him less irritable. I noticed a difference within 2days.

[MSCGS]

My 8 year old is taking 1mg Guanfacine ER once daily. It has helped with his aggression significantly. He is also taking concerts and receiving psychotherapy. The guanfacine had some effect relatively quickly (first week or two) but also he went through various side effects lasting a day or two to weeks. After about a month, the guanfacine was working quite well and he was not having any side effects at all. It never made him tired but did seem to make him less intense. Definitely give it a month or two to see what it can do for your son. Good luck!

[NoleGal]

Since Focalin didn’t work, maybe Guanfacine will. My son -7 at the time- was put on Guanfacine and like others it made him sleep everwhere. He was falling asleep in school, everywhere. His BP dropped to a very low level. We had to stop after a couple days. Keep at it. It takes a while to find the right meds.

[anirush]

My grandson is on Guanfacine and Atomoxetine. Did not have good luck with either by themselves. It takes up to a month to get full effect.

[Imakecutebabies]

My son started 1mg guanfacine ER at 6 and we saw an immediate reduction in aggression--it slowed him down enough to give him a moment to think before acting. It actually made him overly sleepy and subdued at first so we saw the real effect (i.e. slightly less) after the first few days. We raised him to 2mg after the first month or 2, and he made it through the next school year with many incidents, but only one major incident--instead of daily major incidents the previous year.

[Knitting20projects]

We never used the short acting guanfacine. The long acting guanfacine took about 5 days to see any effect, and 2 weeks to really feel comfortable deciding if it was helping enough at the dose or needed a higher dose. Our son has only ever used it as a supplemental medication in addition to Concerta. We are probably going to try it for our daughter (9, ASD/ADHD,ID) but because she can’t swallow pills I might crush the short acting guanfacine.

[BoyMom2015]

My son was 7 at the time & was on it for a few months, taking 1mg. We couldn't tell a difference at all so his Dr. bumped it up to 2mg. After a few days, it caused his heart rate & blood pressure to drop extremely low, so much that he was lethargic & taken to the hospital by ambulance... Children's Hospital determined that it was from that medication. It is a blood pressure medication as well so just watch him very carefully. Good Luck!

[Pema20]

my daughter is 17. She started 1MG Guanfacine in June because the side effects of stimulants were really getting to her. She’s had a lot of emotional dysregulation the last couple of years and we hoped the Guanfacine would help with that. Guanfacine made her quite sleepy at first but after a week seemed more manageable. After 3 weeks we upped it to 2mg, but that made her basically non- functional. She slept 16 hours the first day, fainted at work the second, and after 6 days while it got a little better she was still so impaired by it we dropped back to 1 mg. We didn’t see so much change, but she wasn’t having any major side effects so we kept going. At her annual physical (4weeks int Guanfacine) her BP was exactly as it was last year. About 2 weeks ago, about 7-8 weeks in, I noticed that she hadnt been as irritable or angrily reactive in a while. There are other possible factors - it’s summer and summer is always less stressful so she’s less irritable, the therapist she likes returned to work after a medical leave and they started working together again about the same time she started the Guanfacine, we upped her antidepressant about a month before she started Guanfacine, but those considered, I still think it is helping and that it took longer to see the beneficial effects, 7-8 weeks, than I would have expected. The NAMI site says it takes 4-8 weeks to see the maximum benefit, and our experience seems to confirm this.