My doctor is wanting to try this new ADHD medication called Focalin XR. My 9 year old daughter has been taking Ritalin LA since she was diagnosed 2 years ago.

I like the ritalin LA because it's time released and it hasn't effected her sleeping and her weight is stabalized. (a tad underweight but not bad at all).


She's been struggling in school this year. Partly due to the work is just getting harder as she gets older. My issues with the school district is another long story I won't get into.


The doctor said the new Focalin XR has the properties as ritalin LA but without the components that give ritalin LA the side effects


Has anyone tried this and what kind of results did you have?

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19439&highlight=focalin

There's a nice long thread in the General Meds forum. My DD was on it for awhile and it was fabulous but then about 2 months later we had rebound issues.

my son tried it for a month-his doc hoped will have less side effects than metadate.But it had exactly the same effect, same side effects and it costs more so we went back to metadate...

Not the XR but Focalin short acting. So far so good.

My daughter is on Focalin XR right now. We had her on Ritalin however she had headaches. We had her on short acting but she was switched to the Focalin XR since a couple of weeks after it became approved. I can say we have had good results with it, but we are beggining to have problems with it(she's at her max dose and she is still extreamly hyper). What I can say is the Ritalin worked better for her, but because of headaches my daughter can't be on it. Also, my daughter is younger than yours(5).
P

Did the Ritalin cause the headaches or did she had those before? We're just starting our daughter on Ritalin.

Scattered

She didn't start having the headaches till after we put her on the Ritalin, she was on them for almost a month before the headaches started, after four days of headaches her Psych suggested taking her off the stimulants for a couple of days, when we did the headaches stopped. After being off the Ritalin for 3days we put her on the short acting focalin.

I have tried both the IR and XR version of Focalin at different dosages. I did get headaches (I thought more often than on just Ritalin or Concerta, especially at higher doses) but less side effects all around than from regular Ritalin ect. I am now on Adderall which is working good with less headaches than I experienced with Focalin/Ritalin/Metadate/Concerta ect. Everyone is different, why not give it a try?


Good Luck!