I am not familiar with the meds you mentioned and it isn't clear if your son is taking them to treat ADHD alone but I will put in my 2 cents. I have 2 sons with ADHD, the first one does very well on Concerta and takes a seperate med for anxiety. The meds didn't seem to work as well for my second child so we tried alot of different meds at different doses. This year the meds seemed to be working much better. A couple of months ago however, his behaviour went downhill. To make a long story short he had outgrown his dose. The interesting thing about this is that when we increased it by a small amount everything improved right away. When we increased it a little more things went downhill. What I learned was that too much is just as bad as not enough and unfortunately the drug companies don't always have enough variety in the doses. The dose that works for him is 45mg it only comes in 36 and 54. I would suggest trying different brands and experimenting with the dose in very small increments.

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We started with Focalin XR in May '09 (then 7 yr. old). It worked great, but our son would not eat and had to take additional meds to be able to go to sleep. In Oct. '09, we switched to Strattera, non-stimulant, with no results. Then, Dec. '09 (now 8 yrs. old) we tried to dosages of Wellbutrin XR. This did nothing for his attention, but he was calm (not so talkative). Now we are on our 2nd month of Adderall XR. Again on a stimulant and facing the same issues of not eating. Our son is 8 1/2 yrs old, 48" tall, and weighs 42 lbs. fully dressed. When as parents do we draw a line between nutrition or making it through a day of school??

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ebs0303 said: We initially tried Adderall XR which caused worsened anger and violent behavior. Then tried Metadate CD but now on Focalin XR. It has helped a bit with attention and behavior, but has caused noticeable motor tics. I think the Adderall and Metadate did too to some degree, but seem to be worse on Focalin. Do the tics eventually go away? Can they become permanent? Are the tics medication specific or is he likely to have tics on all stimulants? How do people deal with the tics? I think we are going to end up stopping the Focalin XR - I don't want other kids to comment on the tics, which would be as bad as dealing with the other issues. Im curious about others experiences with their kids meds - any and all advice would be much appreciated.

Also, has anyone used guanfacine or the new medication Intuniv? On the surface, this seems to be a good option, without the tic side effects. Any experiences would be appreciated.

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