Hello

We started Abilfy first and had great sucess. My son is 9. The doctor gave us the abilify to stabilize his mood since he seems to rage about everything. I feel like i have my child back. We have tried every stimulant in the book and it has always made the aggression worse. so the doctor wanted to try Intuniv. He just started Intuniv 3 days ago... so I don't really have any concrete information on the 2 drugs mixed together, but i can say that Abilify has done wonders for my sons agression.

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Well, Chris has been on this combo now for over 3 months and just yesterday, he was quite difficult in school. His psych is not completely confident that the INtuniv is the right thing but said we should try this week w/an increase in the Abilify. So now he's on 10 mg of Abilify in the am and takes 3 mg of Intuniv at night. I'm thinking maybe I should give him the Intuniv even earlier in the eve so he will not be so sleepy in school. I'll update.

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My son is 17 and has bipolar disorder/ Add. He has been on every med in the book for the past four years. We put him on Abilify 15 MG/ Strattera 6 months ago but felt the Strattera made him more aggitated. We have replaced the Strattera with Intuniv and it seems to have helped with the anger but now he has (once again) lost intrest in everything. I get so frustrated because as soon as he makes a little progress with a medicine combo, he seems to slide back worse then he began.

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My 6.5 yr old daughter was recently diagnosed with ADHD. She tried Adderroll & that was horrible. She was then put on 1mg of Intuniv for 1 week & she started out very sleepy for the first two days and then it seemed to level out, but by the 7th day it was as if the drug stopped working so her doctor upped her to 2mg of the Intuniv. Today is her third day on Intuniv & she is extremely sleepy and seems a bit aggravated & crying alot today which I did not experience with the 1mg. Has anyone else experienced these side effects with an increased dosage of Intuniv? Also, has anyone's child seemed to have lost interest in the things that they used to enjoy while taking Intuniv? I am very new to this & trying to figure this whole confusing mess out!

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so it's beens several months... just wondering how the treatment is going with Intunive. We are about to try it for my son.

Thanks!

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hdiamond123 said: Hello

We started Abilfy first and had great sucess. My son is 9. The doctor gave us the abilify to stabilize his mood since he seems to rage about everything. I feel like i have my child back. We have tried every stimulant in the book and it has always made the aggression worse. so the doctor wanted to try Intuniv. He just started Intuniv 3 days ago... so I don't really have any concrete information on the 2 drugs mixed together, but i can say that Abilify has done wonders for my sons agression.

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Hi All, My 8yo daughter is on her 2nd week of Intuniv and it has been wonderful so far. She started off on Adderall XR for 1 year and it simply stopped working. She was then on Vyvanse and we only kept her on that about 6 or 7 weeks. It was horrible. She was angry, sad, mad, everything was negative and extreme. When I say everything, I mean everything. I couldn't take it. And now Intuniv has given me my sweet daughter back. Her moods are happy and she laughs and jokes and plays instead of looking and feeling mad and angry all the time. It has been wonderful. I'm so afraid that things are going to take a dramatic change to the way she used to be but I'm really hoping the Intuniv will continue to work the way it's supposed to. The first few days she was good and asleep really early, around 7:30pm. Now she is able to stay up until about 8:30, which is actually a perfect time for her to go to sleep anyways. She is on the 1mg dose. The only thing she has physically complained of is a headache the first couple of days and a stomach ache, which is mostly when she gets up in the morning. Oh, and one of the biggest changes besides her mood is now she is eating like you wouldn't believe. The first day on the Intuniv I thought she was going to eat everything in the house. So far, I'm very happy with the Intuniv. Just keep in mind that every child is different and what works for one doesn't work for the other. Be patient.

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My 10 1/2 y/o son was diagnosed with Bipolar and ADHD almost 2 years ago. We have gone through so many different medications for his behavior. Most of which turned him into a zombie or made him literally pass out for hours at a time. His doctor put him on Abilify almost a year ago and its been a miracle drug compared to the rest but he was still having mild behavior issues, so rather than trying yet another new medication, his doctor added intunive to his abilify about 3 months ago. The 2 combined have worked miraculously in terms of his behavior / concentration levels and personality. The only issue we are now having is his loss of interest in the things most kids love. His doctor is now starting to lower his abilify dosage as now with the 2 drugs working together he does not need as much. The way she explained it to me, is its more about finding the correct dosage than switching meds and each child tolerates medication differently. he is now on 10mg abilify and 3 of intuniv within the next 3 months we are hoping to get the abilify down to 5 mgs. Ill keep you posted on our progress.

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The Intuniv/Abilify combo has had a DRAMATIC effect on my 9 yo son with Pdd-nos, OCD, TS, and ADHD. We tried many other meds but Intuniv was the first he could tolerate. At 3 mgs, he was too sedated to get through the day, falling asleep at school and just generally out of it. At 2 mgs, he could function but was too hyper and too many tics. When we added the Abilify, it was like he woke up. Suddenly he was back. Participating in life again, trying new things, making friends and finally behavior therapy started to work. His progress is truly amazing.

But, after nearly 6 months at these doses, the tics are coming back worse than ever. We don't know whether to try to raise the Intuniv back up to 3 mgs, and risk sedation, or raise the Abilify and have him gain more weight. He's gained about 15 pounds already.

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My son went through the exact same side effects. 7 days at each dose was NOT ENOUGH time for him to adapt. It took him 12 days to adjust to the 2 mgs of Intuniv. And yes, we went through all of that, sedation, loss of interest in activities, and he wouldn't eat. But we got past it, it just took twice as long to adapt as the literature said it would.

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Abilify was the worst med I could of ever had my son on.He was 9 at this time It did not agree with him.We both went through a lot of pain and time trying to find out why he had so many crazy things going on until I said enough.We put him on different meds and the scary side effects stopped.Maybe he was the only child that had a lot of side effects,but I would never recomend that to anyone.He is currently on concerta ,intinive,celexa for adhd,odd/mood disorder.This seems to be a winning combo for him along with being consistant.He is 11 now. You may want to try other combos if somthing isn't quite right.

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We had no problems with behavior, only hyperactive twins that could not be left unsupervised. Now with 504 plan and collaboration with school, we have bee suspended twice and had three separate spans of 1-2 days of recess detention. My boys are in kindergarten. They are adopted, identical twins, born 8 weeks premature and exposed to alcohol during gestation.

These boys are sweet, loving, happy and temper tantrum free. They cannot, however sit still. They can not be left alone for more than 5 minutes at a time. I have tried extreme dietary restrictions, natural supplements, and finally due to escalation at school resorted to Straterra. I liked the results because I still had my boys (their joy and sunshine) without intense hyperactivity. Only problem--insurance won't cover unless we "fail" at least 2 other meds. Doctor moved us to Concerta--holy NIGHTMARE! They were a basket case and agitated- times 4!

One failure, now for Intuniv. We will start on 1 mg.

Any other helpful resources? Anyone been to an AMEN clinic? Found other tools? We start behavior therapy this week as well. So glad to be paying for all day kindergarten and then spending 1/2 days 3 days a week trying to get my boys the resources school cannot provide.

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