My son was diagnosed with ADHD/ODD about 7 yrs ago. His biological father was also ADD/ODD/LD. CJ went thru a battery of tests (that took 3 or 4 sessions). My husband, his teacher and I also filled out some kind of evaluation forms. I feel he got a good evaluation and that he had the right diagnosis of a moderate case of ADHD/ODD but scored high on some of the areas of testing (academically-math was one of the areas). Let me tell you his history, so you can relate.
Over the years hes been on numerous medications, with some short lived good results, and of couse, some not so good results. Hes tried: Ritalin, Metadate, Strattera, Concerta, Adderall, Adderall XR, Dexedrine and Dextrostat. It seems like there was something else too but for the life of me I cant remember.
He started on Ritalin and was on that for a couple of years when it seemed like his body started to like "super-metabolize" the meds and it wore off in less than 1 1/2 hours. They upped the dosage to as high as they could, then started switching meds. Finally he was switched to Adderall XR. That worked fairly well for a couple of years, despite some stomach upset (We just had him eat first). When CJ started to hit early puberty, he started complaining that he didn't like the way it made him feel and we started to see some mood issues (which could be just puberty) and he started having complaints from teachers of lack of focus/attention and impulsivity. We spoke with his psychiatrist, and he decided to up the dosage. This made his personality really flat and he became even more moody and his grades and attitude really plummeted.
We decided to try a different medication. We switched him to Dexedrine SR. That brought his personality back to normal, but focus and impulsiveness was still off. Now we are going off the extended release stuff and trying Dextrostat (generic).

We do try to use bahavior modifications (from Barkley) to help with the ODD part, but sometimes I swear we are ADD and lose focus and stop sticking with the program. :o

What I was wondering was have you experienced the same kind of trial and error, with temporary successes like CJ?

And could there be something else going on that the psychiatrist isn't seeing? If so, what could it be?

Any and all feedback are appreciated!:)

What I was wondering was have you experienced the same kind of trial and error, with temporary successes like CJ? In a word, yes. I have seen a number of parents report peaks, valleys and plateaus like this, especially in kids. It makes common sense that it might be that way in younger brains while so much is changing inside, especially in teens when a lot of hormones and growth factors are keeping things "stirred up" in the bodily systems. Plus some people's chemistry is especially resistant to change, and things return to the original baseline after a bit. You see that pattern even in some adults.

This is why psychopharmacy involves so much trial and error. Even after you find a recipe that seems to work things might change again. You dont know until you try if it's about which med, or how much of it, or when it is taken, or whether something about what he ate, or his emotional state, is adding additional factors to the mix. It's very frustrating to sort all that out, isn't it?

I can't pretend to guess which particular mix of elements is involved for your own child, but I hope it helps a bit to hear you are far from alone. Just keep watching the patterns in things, what seems to be happening when it works and what seems to be happening when it is not, and over time, you and his doctor might get a stronger fix on the elements in his personal mix.

Best of luck!

CJGsMom,

It sounds like you are working hard at helping him your son. I hope it all comes together soon! Hang in there!

I just have a few things about behavior for you to consider.

Behavior modification programs can work very well (for ODD and ADHD), however, the key is consistency.

Have you tried using charts and keeping them in areas that are visible?
The visibility will help everyone to remember.

Set routines can help a lot and will also aid everyone involved in using behavior modification. You can even make the routine visible - and have a chart, so when one segment of the routine is done - a square is checked off (or a sticker put on, or colored in . .etc).

Are you doing a lot of positive reinforcement when you see your son have appropriate behavior?
The key to this is to make sure the positive reinforcement is something that motivates him to work hard at having appropriate behavior.

I hope these ideas help you out :)

Best wishes to you, CJGsMom and your son