Hi MPF:

You bring up a great - and often overlooked - point about diagnosing ADHD: Testing for related conditions like ODD, anxiety, bipolar, etc.

Overlooking these related conditions is a huge reason for misdiagnoses and for the kind of treatment problems you described.

I would highly recommend that all parents of ADHD children check our list of common comorbid conditions if they experience any problems with behavior that medication doesn't help or makes worse.

So glad to hear your daughter is on the mend now. What a horrible ordeal to go through for everyone!

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Thank you very much for the links! they are very informative. This web sit has been the best and most informative and it is helpful to read other parents stories. thanks for all the support and info.

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I am interested in what you went through and are going through. I have a 7 1/2 year old he has been on adderall and concerta both he burned through way to quick during school time and adderall made him aggressive. This time they are trying Vyvanse and he is not doing well. We started on the 30 he was doing fine for awhile and then it was like he never had his pill, they raised the dose to 50 mg well we are having all kinds of issues. He is aggressive, confrintational, rude, controling and he is now stealing things. I also have noticed that he is having ticks( eye blinking, clearing his throat and sniffing ). I took him to the doctor after I got a call from the school regarding his behavior almost getting him suspended. The doctor said it is not the medicine since he had the problem with the adderall and his behavior before. We have an appointment with a phychiatrist on the 23 of this month. I am at my wits end , my child did not act like this before he took this medication. I feel like I hae lost who he is. I want to stop the medication before the appointment , but I am afraid that he will not be able to control his ADHD in the mean time. I need advice.

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We are new to the whole ADHD world & medications. My son is 6 years old & the first med we tried was Vyvanse. At first I was so happy - he was really a new kids. Not so defiant, not so impulsive, mellower but in a good way. After a few days, he started to get SOOO emotional. It continued. Crying all the time. More exaggerated reactions to events. Sad. I took him off Vyvanse even though it controlled the ADHD symtoms. We then tried Focalin which didn't work. Now, we are trying Ritilan AD which doesn't seem to be working either. Not sure where we go next but I will agree with you...Vyvanse seems to bring out emotional reactions in some children! Good luck to us all:)

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My 7 yr. old son also got very emotional after about three weeks. He would cry over everything. We just took him off and the emotional rollercoaster improved. Before the Vyvanse we were on Daytrana, Focalin, and Metadate. This medicine thing has been a nightmare. My husband and I felt that the Daytrana patch worked the best, but his teacher did not think so. I have no idea wht to do. I think we are running out of medicine.

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After trying the first anti-psych med that physiatrist wanted to put her on seroquel. We were against that because it zombafies the child, she said she can't help us so we went to someone else. He ordered the test that should have been done in the beginning before putting her on the adhd meds and told us to try fish oil and monitor her moods after we stopped the adhd meds. He also said that she does have a mood disorder, and that is why the Vyvanse caused her to have those moods swings the way she did. I don't know if that is true for your children but if a mood disorder runs in your family it is certainly something to look into. The medication for the adhd may be right for your child but if there is a mood disorder that runs in the family and it affects your child, giving them the adhd medication will cause the chemicals to be unbalanced, witch causes the mood swings. As I said I don't know if this is the case for your children, but take it from someone who has gone through it, if you have a mood disorder in your family, have your child checked.,especially if the meds for the adhd are causing mood swings. This could be the case and it will get worse if you giving it to them and they have a mood disorder. The Adhd medication for my daughter worked but she didn't have something to control the mood ( balance the chemicals in her brain) so it appeared to be a bad thing. She's been off all meds for 7 months. The wild, scary mood swings have stopped. The Adhd is worse. She can't focus in school. She can't concentrate. She recently took a test for school (Achievement test) and she had an anxiety attack, she was on the verge of hyperventilation, because she could not concentrate.She new the answers but couldn't get it out of her brain. We are witing to see if we can get her on an antipsych that will work with the Vyvance. I will let you know how it goes.

I hope you both can find something that works for your kids, Adhd is a terrible struggle for them.. and us. I do hope the information I gave you from my own experience helps. If not I hope you can find something that will help. Good luck to you!!!!

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