My son is 54 lbs and is eight years old. He takes 60 mg of strattera. Last year at school he took a combination of strattera and adderall. This summer we stopped the adderall and just continued on with the strattera.

A few weeks ago the same old problems started at school, rushing through work, bothering the other kids, getting in constant trouble from non-stop talking. The doctor would not raise the strattera but put him back on on 5 mg of Adderall. He has been on this combination for two weeks and his behavior at school has declined even more! He takes the strattera at night (because he gets sleepy) and the Adderall in the morning before school.

He does not like taking the Adderall and tomorrow morning I am not going to give it to him because he just wants to take the strattera.

That was a long story just to ask if anyone knows what weight he will need to be at before we can increase the Strattera and just not worry about having to combine meds? When the strattera is working, it works really well without side effects.

Thanks so much,
Vanessa

The maximum recommended dosage for Strattera is 1.2mg/kg/day. Beyond this amount, the clinical studies did not show any additional benefit, on average. Individually, you could well see benefits above this dosage level. At 60mg and 54lbs, your son is taking 2.2mg/kg/day, so I can understand why the Dr doesn't want to raise the dosage any further - I would suspect that increasing again it isn't likely to help, and I'd be wary of taking any new-to-the-market drug at 2 or 3 times the recommended maximum dosage - there is just no way to know what the long term risks might be, etc.
Strattera is somewhat known for "spotty" performance - where it works one week and not the next, etc. I don't know how often this happens or if Strattera "stabilizes" with time, or if going on drug "vacations" helps with this or not.

Just curious why does he prefer the Adderall to the Strattera?

The doctor has added the Adderall in addition to the Strattera. My son does not like taking the Adderall in the morning, he says it gives him a stomach ache (he takes it after a good breakfast). He happily takes the Strattera.

This morning I did not give him the Adderall on the condition that he try and control his behavior at school today.

I am so confused!

I wonder why it hurts his stomach? Is it a big pill? I guess it's Adderall XR? My gut is very sensitive but I get no problems at all from the dexedrine I take (Adderall is very similar to dexedrine), so I'm a bit surprised it would bother him - of course everyone's different. Maybe ask the Dr about a different type of pill - like something in a spansule format, with little beads that can be mixed with applesause? Maybe that would be less irritating? I haven't heard of a lot of stomach complaints from Adderall - I'll have to look into that.

Oh yea, my kids used to have that side effect also when they first started taking it.

Let him take what he wants.

Who are you to tell him that he should have to take this or that pill? It's his body and his mind.

What? Oh nevermind.....