ADHD meds

[cobbiemommy]

DS, 13, has been taking Metadate for a couple years and after a couple of IVIgs, we are looking to change. We are looking at switching to Strattera, a non-stimulant medication.

 

DS, took Strattera earlier in his life and did OK, but it became ineffective after a while. (Gee, before we knew about PANDAs).

 

Does anyone else have experience with Strattera? How about with Metadate?

 

Cobbie

[MomWithOCDSon]

We tried Intuniv for a while, which, like Straterra, is supposed to be a non-stimulant ADHD med. DS and we thought it helped his focus initially, but the impact seemed to wane pretty quickly, and it made his blood pressure drop dramatically, which became problematic by the afternoon because he had trouble staying awake and alert. Don't know if Straterra has that same side-effect profile . . . .

 

Have you tried zinc? We've really had some good results with supplementing twice daily with Opti-Zinc by SolaRay, a high-potency, high-absorption form of zinc. We sort of discovered DS's improvement with zinc several months ago when I gave him one of those Zicam melt-tabs because he had started sniffling and we thought he might be coming down with a cold. The cold abated, but unexpectedly, his focus at homework time improved noticably as well. Then I went on line and found this:

 

Zinc and ADHD

 

and this

 

More Zinc and ADHD in Kids

 

Might be worth considering, since the side effect profile is relatively non-existent. Good luck!

[1tiredmama]

My ds has been taking Intuniv for several years. I recently commented to one of his doctors that, while his hyperactivity is well-controlled, ds is still unable to pay attention. Conversations must be brief. He will rarely focus long enough to get through a movie. And, reading? Forget it! Interesting thing is, this doctor responded by telling me that Intuniv doesn't address attention! I later confirmed this with the prescribing doctor. Wish she would have mentioned that! Oh well, nothing else worked for him anyway.

 

Sooo... I would only use Intuniv as a last resort if attention is a big part of your child's problem.

 

Nancy, I'm going to look into trying zinc. Thanks for the links!