Long story short .. my son was diagnosed last January. He has the combo ADHD. He was placed on focalin XR 20 and was doing well until march. He started having this severe fear of bees and wouldn't go outside. He has always been active , outdoors and fully immersed in sports. It was debilitating. The doctor added in risperidone for him being irritable. He then started to pick his skin severely until he bleeds . His poor arms are scarred up and places on his legs and now one under his lip. The doctor then stopped risperidone and put him on zoloft that didn't help and then the next psychiatrist he started going to put him on lexapro with his focalin. This didn't help either. He worries about everything and everyone. Right now the doctor wants me to give him NAC - have any of you used this? and then at his next appointment if his picking hasn't stopped she wants to try him on clonidine. I don't know what to do. Mornings in our house are always a fight and I just want him to get the best help for what he has going on.
10 year old son is on Focalin XR 20 a... - CHADD's ADHD Pare...
10 year old son is on Focalin XR 20 and has severe skin picking.
Its hard I feel your pain my child is 9 and has been on Vyvanse and zoloft(3 yrs) and he still still continues the same as if he was on any medications. It would be good if there was a type of blood test you have done and your provider can Rx accordingly. I really sympathethize with you. Hang in there!,
yikes! Sounds like quite the roller coaster! As PP mentioned, you might want to check out Genesight testing to try to narrow down medication options. Our child also picks at their skin. It is much, much less frequent than it has been, however. For us, what helped the most was reducing the dose of the stimulant and adding on guanfacine. Guanfacine is similar to clonidine, but has some advantages—the biggest being that it aids emotional regulation. For us, it also counteracted the negative side effects of the stimulant. NAC has a good track record for helping reduce hair pulling, another ‘body-focused, repetitive behavior’ like skin picking. It sounds like it may be worth a shot!
my husband couldn’t tolerate SSRIs . They make him overstimulated so he becomes manic then suicidal.perhaps your son has the same genetic tendency.
What works for him is a small dose of clonazapam but they might not prescribe that for a child as it’s addictive. It works on the GABA system instead of seratonin.
You can get GABA as a supplement you could try. Try as a small dose . You can get tablets that dissolve under the tongue.
sounds like you guys are having lots of side effects. I recommend getting a gene sight test. It will mesh his genetics with all of the mental health medications so you have an idea which ones yo stay away from.
It definitely seems like his anxiety is spiking too. It’s possible you should try non stimulants more, or add an anxiety med in the mix. Bring these ideas up yo your doc and see what they say.
I'm so sorry to hear this! My son was on Foculin for many years but the anxiety, tics and lack of eating became too much. He could get super angry at the drop of a hat as well. We ended up switching him to Straterra instead of Foculin. Straterra is a non-stimulant. Such a huge change! The anxiety/anger got so much better. The tics went away and he started eating again. Maybe something to discuss with your doctor. Good luck!
my son has very similar issues - absolutely needs stimulants but also has some bad side effects including not eating all day, picking his lips, bad anxiety and new fears (butterflies, loud sounds among others) that also prevents him from doing things he once loved. I don’t have an answer yet but have him in exposure therapy to help him with the fears. I think it’s helping but too soon to tell if it’s working
My son had this side effect with Methylphenidate long acting. Severe/Irrational fear to ants and Flys that was not previously there. Would have near panic attacks at even the thought of either bug being in the house or classroom. Terrifed to be outdoors. He previously loved playing out in the yard and going to parks. He also became terrified to use the bathroom in the house. As soon as we stopped the Methylphenidate all the irrational fears went away.
He does have generqlized anxiety but the Methylphenidate blew it way up. If your kiddo was not previously like this then I would talk to your doc about finding a different stimulant to try. Putting him on another med to combat that big of side effect/change in your sons personality to a stimulant seems a bit off.
Focalin is what we landed on along with Guanfacine and zoloft. Zoloft was added on at a later date because of his social/generalized anxiety and has helped wonders. I hope you can find something that works better for your kiddo!
We noticed our daughter started severe skin picking, had increased tics, and was quieter when we started to go up on Focalin XR, especially on 15mg. It wasn't until a couple months later and alot of interventions that we considered one of the contributing factors could be that the Focalin dosage was too high. She did fine over the summer, but became aggressive in the evenings when school started back. We took her back down to 10mg., then 5mg. and she is doing much better. Other medications she is on are Prozac and Guanfacine (Intuniv) with no change in dosage. Sending you virtual hugs, as I understand how difficult the journey is to help your child.
How does Prozac work for her? We are fixing to start it
She's on 20mg. and it helps her with anxiety. Have not changed dosage on that one at all. She's 10 now and has been on it for about 3 years.
That gives me hope!! Thank you so much for being so encouraging
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