Strattera -- does anyone have experience, good or bad?

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I'm relatively sure that there are people on this site who don't agree with medicating your children.

I used to be one of those people.

We have had our son (now 11) on a form of Ritalin for two years. It purely helps him with focus -- he does NOT need it for hyperactivity. In the past we have felt that it helped him to pay attention, in order to socialize. Just recently we have seen him having real changes (lots of emotionality, some defiance OUTSIDE of the home, never in the home), and we are guessing these changes are due to the beginnings of puberty. I have been told by numerous sources that, now with the onset of puberty, all bets are off with whatever current medication that my son is taking, and so we may want to try something else.

So the GP has suggested Strattera, and I would like to hear from parents (or others) who have experience with this medication with their children.

As a side note -- our son had one weekend lately where we went out of town, and forgot the Ritalin. We TOTALLY enjoyed him -- he was more "engaged" and social, more "boyish", just a joy to be around. A tiny bit hyper, but nothing out of the usual 11 year old "boy" behavior. He still has focus problems, and HE prefers to be on the meds for homework and school. If we felt like he could do well off the meds, we would gladly take him off. I also hope, and feel, that eventually he will be able to get off the meds as he matures. I've tried to explain to him that the meds DO NOT make him a better or more able person -- they are a tool, just like someone who uses glasses to read. One can often read without glasses, but sometimes it makes life a little easier.

Kris

We love Strattera in our house!

I had my son on Ritalin when he was 7. What a nightmare! Granted he had a bad reaction to it, but he did not do well on Ritalin at all. They had to put him on Clonodine with it, because he was ticing so much. I don't know if it was the Ritalin or the Clonodine, but he turned into a zombie and seized any real learning. He was calmer, so the school was happy, his acedemic progress stalled completely.

We refused to put him on another stimulent, the tic's really scared me. In the end it was a key reason why we decided to Home School, the school was really pressuring us to medicate him, and I refused to put him on anything that would make him sick.

Fast forward 4 years, and we are putting him back in school again. We are confronted with the meds questions again. I decide to go to a pead, and he suggests Strattera, tells me it sounds like my son had a bad reaction on the Ritalin, and would not recommend it or any of the cousin drugs for the attention problems.

We love it. My son was very anxious about taking a drug, he was very opposed to anything that would change the way he "felt". I did not want a zombie, I wanted my son! Everything we have experianced related to mood has been positive. He does not "feel" different, and to me I don't see him really being different, although he is more relaxed, his english teacher discribes it as "mellow". Not sleepy, more like "calm and peaceful".

It took awhile to get the dose worked out (3 months) it does not work at all like Ritalin, it is not a stimulent or from the same family of drugs. But we saw positive effects after only a few weeks. The only draw back is that it apparently does not always offer the same amount of attention benifits. I have a friend though who has her child on Strattera and a little ritalin, and he is doing really well, so if you want a little more to help get through studying, that is always an option.

Overall, I would definately recommend it! We have had some minor side effects (he claims cotton mouth although I suspect he is making it up based off a movie and reading the side effect list dwelling on it before he even started taking it). We had some problems with being "tired and sleepy" but taking it at night has solved that.

I like the fact that it does not put him on an up and down rollar coaster like the other drugs, as any one pill does not cause a mental "change" in him, it is a drug that works through accumulated effect.

THANKS! This sounds positive. The pediatrician said that Strattera would not be as strong a medication, and that the effects are not as much like a "hammer" approach as Ritalin. I think that could be a good thing, unless he is LESS attentive in school. Hopefully we will be able to iron things like that out during the summer months.

Thanks so much for responding.

Kris

I just wanted to wish you the best with the Strattera! I was also one of those parents who never wanted to medicate her child, but my son became so hyperactive and impulsive that my husband and I began to worry for his safety (running out of the house, in front of cars, etc.). We just started him on a very small dose of Adderall, and it has taken the edge off.

As I mentioned, if it does not offer enough for the attention in school, you could try a very small dose of ritalin to compliment it. Talk to the doctor about that.

However you have the summer to work out the Strattera, by September he can be on a higher dose then the starting dose, and the longer you are on it, the more effective it is. So, hopefully in 3 months time it will be working the way it should be!

Good luck, hope you have a drug plan!

It has been necessary to change the dosage, from time to time. We have experimented with several drugs.
I suspect you will find that drugs work differently on different people, so your results may vary.

A lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea of 'drugging' their children, as if somehow they are bad parents for passing on 'bad' aspy genes. "I didn't need drugs when I was a boy, and no son of mine will need them either!! !!" I'm sure the reasons and rationals are endless.

My wife and I discussed the matter shortly after my son was diagnosed, and had the following observations.

o My sons behavior was disruptive to the point where he was unable to learn at school.
o His behavior was disruptive enough that we were basically unable to teach him the social skills he needed.
o My problems (I'm an Aspy too) were bad enough that I was really unable to contribute meaningfully to a solution.
o The stress levels in the family were enormous.

So, we decided to go the drug route, specifically for the purpose of mellowing him out, to the point it became possible to teach him the social skills he needs.

Over the last couple of years, we have had to change the meds, and the dose.
Twice things got out of hand to the point where he had to be hospitialized to have his meds rebalanced.


Nowadays, things are smoother.

He attends a special school for kids with problems.
His meds are effective, and occasionally when we miss them, he is generally ok.
We have a therapist come in once a week to teach social skills.
She has been so effective that we have been able to remove items from his IEP.

The family stress levels are manageable.

Thanks, Eathcalling and EvilTeach. It's good to get your perspectives on these meds.

EvilTeach, it sounds like you had a great experience with this therapist who teaches social skills. I would love to hear more about that. We had a speech teacher who, in an effort to teach "pragmatic" language, also taught social skills. She was very helpful, I'm sure. It would be interesting to hear what your therapist taught.

Thanks again,

Kris

I don't have any experience with Strattera personally, but my cousin's little boy just started taking it. He has ADHD and he was so out-of-control that none of us wanted him at any family functions. He was mean to the other kids and an accident waiting to happen. They tried the stimulants for the ADHD and they made him ill. He began Strattera a couple of months ago and he is not like the same kid. On the playground at school he is one of the happy, calm kids. He is polite and doing well in school. He is a pleasure to be around for the first time in his 8 year life.

Keep in mind that he has ADHD, not Asperger's and everyone reacts differently to any med. I haven't had to consider medicating my 2 AS sons but I have been considering medication for my ADHD daughter. I hate to see her struggling with things that she just can't control.

Good luck!

My son was on it for a while. I loved it for him, his behavior was great at home, no sleep issues either or weight loss. However, I got a note home from school after him being on it for quite a while asking if I am giving him his meds., big behavior issues. So while it helped at home for us, it wasn't working so well on the academic front, so we went back to ritalin.

I'm reading about this on other areas online, and I've heard the same thing, Omma.

Actually, I'm reading lots of negatives -- especially nausea, and not as good focus as on the Ritalin.

But then I wonder, is this partially due to only people unhappy with the meds would write? If you're happy, you're too busy to write?
And if you're unhappy with the meds, you really want people to know that? i.e., it may be helping people, but we're not hearing from the ones where Strattera worked for them . . .

Boy, in my research, I've been seeing that Adderall isn't kind of scary.

Kris

If the biggest complaint with Strattera is that it causes nausea in some and the focus is not as good, I don't think you have much to loose... All the alternatives can cause much worse problems then that!

I agree too, people that are happy don't tend to write about how happy they are all over the place, they keep it more to themselves.

No drug works for everyone.

I had horrible experiances with Ritalin for my son, I know many others who have had too, but that does not mean everyone does.