My son (9yrs) had his 3 month check-up last week and the Dr agreed to try another medication.

Currently my son is on Strattera (Atomoxitine) and has just has Risperidone withdrawn. The Risperidone was added previously to control his mood swings but i understand that this is a 'serious' drug and was keen to try something else, plus I'm not entirely sure it has any great positive effects.

For us, I would say his most intolerable trait is his in-you-face loud behaviour. If he's in the house, he fills the house. It's totally exhausting because he won't be quiet/still and this obviously causes issues at school. Whilst I know all children are like this some of time, he's like this all of the time. If this can be curbed, life would so much more liveable - he's incredibly hard to be around.

So, we're trying Clonidine which I understand is calming. He's been prescribed .5mg twice a day which he's been taking for 3 days now - BUT NO CHANGE - I'm so dispondant.

My Dr did say to give it a week and then I could give one more dosage of .5 so a total of 1.5mg a day.

I/we so need this to work; I want to enjoy my son, not tolerate him but I don't now how much longer our family can tolerate his behaviour. It rules everything because after several hours people become exhausted with him, its so sad.

So, I'm desperate to hear of when/how this drug should kick in. He doesn't appear to have suffered from any negative effects so far but we need some positive change.

Taking clonidine and strattera at the same time would cancel eachother out. One is a NE reuptake inhibitor and one increases NE reuptake.

The combination could have beneficial longer term effects via alpha2/NE receptor downregulation? But that is a slow process usually over months.

BobC

They both work on NE, and in seemingly opposite ways, but probably do not say they cancel out. The brain is so complex and even something like NE has like 10 different receptors, all doing different things (e.g. triggering one may produce attentiveness, another drowsiness). Moreover, they often do their stuff in different parts of the brain and body. Dexamphetamine only targets dopamine production in certain areas of the brain for example.

As for the long-term effects of receptor regulation - have there been any serious studies into the effects stimulants and co have on kids with ADHD in terms of regulation (i.e. make condition worse, better, neither)?