Another medication Question

So, I am one of those parents who falls into the extremely hesitant category when it comes to medication. We do fine at home with minimal challenges since The Boy is our only child. His school behavior is still ridiculous. I'm at the point where I feel badly that his aide and teacher have to deal with being scratched several times a week. Any anxiety-producing situation (going to doctors, etc) will make his behavior worse as will his lack of deep sleep (he "looks" asleep but never EVER stops moving).

The neuro suggested Clonidine before, and I resisted because they can't say if it will actually put him in a deep sleep or just do what the melatonin already does. And, I don't want him on several different medications. I've been researching and it does sound like Clonidine might benefit him as we think many of his issues are caused by PTSD and the Clonidine impacts that system? I also came across Tenex as a possibility.

Has anyone had experience with Clonidine or Tenex?
 
T

TeDo

Guest
difficult child 1 has been on both. The clonidine helped a lot with sleep at night but we had to stop it because he woke up every day with headaches that verged on migraine-level pain. He is still on the Tenex and it helps him sleep. He typically sleeps 10-12 hours a night and wakes up VERY refreshed. I think we may need a dosage change now though because for the past couple weeks he's had at least 2 nights a week (not consecutive thank D*g) where he gets up after only 8 hours and is irritable (to put it nicely) all day.
 
T

TeDo

Guest
Our biggest issue was sleep and the resulting behaviors from lack thereof. The clonidine was also used as a prn during the day but even a small dose knocked him out so it was hard to say. We only tried it for about a week, maybe less. On the Tenex, he takes 1mg at bedtime. He used to take 0.5mg in the morning but that didn't do much and we couldn't raise it because his blood pressure is always at the low normal end anyway and they didn't want to take chances. Sorry I can't be of much help. I just know that now that he gets much better sleep, things have improved for us. He's a BEAR when he doesn't get enough sleep so that is our primary concern.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
We have used both. Tenex didn't do anything for my difficult child but all kids are different.

Our difficult child has been on Clonidine for years. First he started taking it for sleep and it really helped. Now he takes it to help with his ADHD symptoms and it has helped a lot. It isn't a cure all but it has been very helpful for him. Without it we notice a HUGE difference and it is not good.
 
Top