I am in deperate need of any information concerning strattera making children angry as a side effect.

My son is 8 and he has been taking concerta 54mg. His doctor and I decided to begin to switch him to strattera because of his weight and because he needs more control than just 12 hours a day.

Today would be the 6th day my son has been taking 10 mg of strattera after dinner. Since he starting taking it he has been angry on and off. Maybe half a day at a time. Today I got a call from his daycare saying if he didn't stop begin mean, hitting other children and raising his voice to the teachers that I would have to come and pick him up, that he was out of control. I spoke to him on the phone and threatened to ground him. This afternoon his teacher says he is fine. She doesn't think it is a side effect of strattera. She says he often has simlar behavior that they beleive to be "normal" so they have never called me or mentioned anything to me before today. Which I plan on questioning them about when I get there.

I have placed a call to his doctor but he hasn't called me back yet.

My boyfriend, who we live with, thinks my son should be severly punished (grounded) for what he did this morning.

Could anyone give me feedback as to whether they think this is strattera at work or my son needs discipline.

Thanks.

Well if he is typically like this, then I wouldn't think it is the meds. I am curious though why the day care wouldn't say anything to you until they are basically ready to throw him out. How can you work on something if you don't know there is a problem:confused: .

If you feel this is not something he would typically do, or the intensity of his typical behavior is increasing, or the frequency is increasing, then yes, it could be the Strattera. My son has co-morbid disorders that make it very difficult to treat his ADHD. All the meds we have tried just increase his already "on the edge" behavior. He was the worst on Strattera, he hit a child (much younger then him) for absolutely no reason at all:( . This was the first time he had ever been in a one way fight.

I'm not sure how to answer your discipline question. It's hard trying to figure out what is coming from the meds, what is coming from their disorder in general as they generally have poor impulse control, and what is just them. At the same time you don't want to send the message that it would be okay under any circumstance. I've been there, it's extremely difficult.

I have come to a place that while I do let a lot of things go, and seriously pick my battles in a way that I never have before...we still have one major rule. "If you have an unsafe day, there is no exception, no negotiation, no compromise, you will lose a privilege". An unsafe day here, means no physical touching in a way that could cause harm (pinching, hitting, shoving), no threats to others, no threats or actions that could harm themselves either, and no damage to property. It is our major rule, that under any circumstance will be disciplined for. What ever they lose, they can't get back until they earn it back. The only way to earn it back is to have a safe day.

I was just so tired of trying to figure out what was caused from what, was it his impulse control, was it lack of sleep, a medication, provocation from someone else, "someone hit me first", how to punish it, etc, etc. It is the most important thing to me too, of all the rules, so we just decided to lay this one out as the one that must not be broken, without exception. It has helped, not 100%, but has helped a great deal doing this because he knows that there is no middle ground, no exception.

I've also realized through reading a great book called "The Explosive Child", that even at 9 years old, my son has very few "feeling words", or knowledge of how to use them. He knows the words, he didn't know how to associate those words with his own emotions though. So I'm working very hard with him to make sure that he understands that it's perfectly okay to be mad, sad, frustrated, or anything else he feels, but it's not okay to hit, yell, throw things because of those feelings. Instead he needs to say what he feels, because if he says he's angry or frustrated, an adult will help him. If he hits, an adult will punish him.

This doesn't help over night. Kids don't go from hitting and yelling to saying how they feel in a day. It generally takes someone telling them "wow I can see you are really frustrated, angry, etc, lets see how I can help you with this" before they learn to use that skill themselves and tell you they are struggling instead of just lashing out, or saying they hate you, etc. So if you see similar issues with your child in that regard, work on that, it really helps. Sometimes there are underlying mood disorders and those need to be treated also.

Anyway, you know your son better then anyone. Do what you feel is right for him. No child is the same, no situation the same, and only you can decide what is right. This is just my experience so far. We are still struggling with behavior, but I've seen baby steps forward :).

Good luck!

My daughter had side effects from Straterra as well - though they were not behavioral, but physical. Stomachaches and nausea. Take a look at Focalin. Though it is a stimulant, it doesn't seem to cause eating issues or sleep problems like Concerta. My daughter has been on the extended Focalin now for three months with success.

Trust your instinct - if he is behaving differently and the meds are the only thing that has changed in his life, then they are probably the cause.

A couple of thoughts come to mind -- perhaps it is in part his withdrawal from stimulent medication that is causing part of the anger problem if he's been on them a while now. Also Strattera is generally found to be less effective than stimulent medication and it just may not give him enough of an edge on his impulse control. If his behavior has suddenly changed, there is a good likelihood it is from the medication or the change of medications. Best to talk to your doctor.


Scattered

Dee Dee,

Did you take him off the Concerta completely when you started the Strattera? If so, you may be seeing withdrawal symptoms like someone already mentioned. Another possibility is that because the Strattera takes quite a while to build up in his system and because he's on such a low dose, he's basically unmedicated right now (assuming he's completely off the Strattera).

My daughter started Strattera a year ago. It hasn't been the perfect solution, but it's been pretty good for us. She was completely unmedicated before she started. We started on a fairly low dose (25mg. -- at the time she weighed 90lb.) and worked our way up over the course of a month. I saw very small improvements after about three days. After a week, even her father started to notice. Within a month, things were great. After six months she seemed to have regressed, then we determined she metabolizes the medicine quickly, so we upped her dose.

We still have our good days and bad days, but overall, things are much improved. The best way I can describe it is this: Strattera doesn't completely mute her symptoms, rather it turns down the volume.

Good luck to you!

I have been on Adderall xr for about 6 weeks now and I just read your post and felt like I had to respond. I have 2 children a boy and a girl. My daughter and myself are ADD+, my son is just a little my wife very little. We have not put our children on any medication for this disorder, instead my wife who has a little knowledge in nutrition tries to keep our family on the Feingold diet. This diet consists of basically eating healthy natural foods without preservatives or food colorings. This diet definitely works even though it is not easy to stay on all the time, since we eat out and our kids cheat when they are with their friends or in school. The reason I know this diet works with our children and myself is because some days our kids are normal, other days they (and myself) are bouncing off the wall. When ever this happens my wife can trace it back to what we ate 99% of the time. It would usually be a food with a strong preservative (BHT) or / and artificial food coloring. A lot of cereals (Fruit Loops and many others have these kind of additives). Chocolate and most candies are another one, caffeine, to much sugar and a combination of all of these will cause bad food reactions. I have been on Adderall for 6 weeks and find it is working, "but only" when I eat right. I can put 3 or 4 good days together in a row and than I have a day where my emotions are very negative, (anger, sadness paranoid ex.). In the beginning of taking this medication I had to quit coffee and all caffeinated drinks. Than this medication stared to work. Last week I put 4 real good emotionall days together. Than my emotions and my kids were off. My wife traced it back to the Chinese food we had the night before loaded with MSG and other artifical junk, diffidently not Feingold recommitted. Than back to our diets and we’re OK again. Most doctors don’t know about the Feingold diet which has been around for I think 30 or 40 years. Doctors only know how to write prescriptions.

I have a link you may want to check out. What was your child’s diet that day in and before school?

Best wishes

Eddie





http://www.newideas.net/adddiet.htm