ADHD medication affects hearing?

[Iveria2774]

Hello, I am on 80 mg Straterra generic (Atomoxetine), been taking this for 1.5 months now. Titrated up to 80 mg bit by bit for the past few months.

One thing I notice now with the 80 mg is that my hearing seems VERY alert. It's almost as if my ears were closed off and opened up all of a sudden. I can hear things I wasn't able to hear before. For example, I am sitting at my desk and I can hear the fridge in the room next door. I can also hear ambient noise from the city coming in through the windows. It's very strange being able to hear this many sounds all of a sudden...

Does this mean the medication is working? Or is this a sign that the medication dosage is too high? I have no idea!

I remember experiencing the same thing when I tried a low dose of Concerta, then Vyvanse. I abandoned both because I found it irritating to have such sensitive hearing.

nyone been through this before?

Thank you

[Gettingittogether]

Share this with your provider. I mean, we all tune out background sounds all the time. Sounds like you have recently tuned into those background sounds. You've quite likely been hearing them all the time, you just didn't pay attention.

Fans make noise, clocks, cars on the street. I remember about 20 years ago when car alarms were going off in the middle of the night where I live--NOBODY got up because they tuned out the alarms as irrelevant background noise.

Whenever I've tuned into background nose, over time, my focus shifts and I don't pay attention to it anymore. Have no idea if this is good sign for your meds.

How is the rest of your life?--that's the test for meds. Not ability to tune into background noise.

[75ADHDgal]

I looked in the PDR- Physicians Desk Reference - no mention of this but it could be > if you think it is possible discuss with your doctor and get a hearing test and if yes you lost hearing stop medication and have the physican report to the drug adverse affect line

[emiL1234]

A friend of mine hears louder when he takes Concerta, and I saw other people saying the same. I guess if someone has inattentive type ADHD, this person would NOT want to hear unsignificant sounds louder. To me, it would be a no-go. I have mild adhd or a wrong diagnosis and the effect I was always searching for with medication and never have found was to be more "in a tunnel" as some people describe. I wanted to read faster, and people say I talk too much and too fast. Hearing sounds louder would be of no help at all to me ( or others) so it's an easy choice to make.