10 year old son is on Focalin XR 20 and has severe skin picking.

[Booklover10]

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.

[MOTORMOUTH_ADHD_ODD]

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!,

[Aspen797]

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!

[LAJ12345]

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.