Guanfacine

[Bigal]

My 11.5 year old son's tics got really bad last week. Most of the time, he just has a leg/walking/hopping tic. He does it a lot but it doesn't impair his life much. And most people just think that he hops occasionally.

 

Last Sunday, his head flick tic appeared. We hadn't seen that since last winter. It was quite bad then. I was away on business, but my wife said that it was even worse this time. His teacher said she counted 30 tics a minute.

 

On Tuesday, we tried .25mg Clonazapam. That did not seem to have an effect. Then on Wednesday, we tried 0.5mg of Guanfacine. The head tic went away quickly. And has not returned. His leg tic is till there. We've continued to give him 0.5mg. We won't do that indefinitely. But I'm not sure when we will in fact stop.

 

So has anybody had any bad experiences with Guanfacine? Is there anything that I should be looking out for? Any cautionary tales? Please let me know.

 

Honestly, we've been trying various supplements (fish oil, magnesium, taurine) and eliminating sensitive foods. But none of that had any noticeable effect. The Guanfacine though, is REALLY helping.

 

Thanks

Alan

[Chemar]

No personal experience with this but you may want to search the generic name as well as the brands Tenex (most commonly used) and Intuniv(extended release form)

I know there are past threads about Tenex here.

[Cj60]

Alan,

 

guy123 posted information at this link last year:

 

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16430&hl=%2Bguy123+%2Bguanfacine#entry132181

 

- Chris