Vanderbilt prescribed it for my son. Changing him from Adderall to Focalin. Anyone else tried it yet?

I know that it takes about two weeks to notice if the medications are working BUT I noticed a huge difference in his disposition the day that he didn't take the Adderall.
 

Mikey

Psycho Gorilla Dad
For me and McWeedy (when he takes it), Focalin is great. Adderall was horrible, made us both cranky and short-tempered. Ritalin is good, but hard on the stomach and has a short effective time (we had to take 3-4 doses a day, about 3 hours apart). Ritalin LA works great, but is very expensive.

As I understand it, Focalin IS Ritalin, sort of. The docs told me that Ritalin has two active ingredients: one that provides 80% of the benefits and 20% of the side effects, and the other ingredient that provides only 20% of the benefit but has 80% of the side-effects. Focalin is Dexmethylphenidate, i.e. Ritalin without the second ingredient.

My doctor said that even though what's left is only 80% as "effective", it actually works better because (a) people take it more regularly because of the significantly lower side effects, and (b) the lack of side effects seems to "help" with the overall effectiveness.

On top of that, my pharmacist said that Focalin work like a "Pro(?)" drug, meaning that while it's not technically a "long-acting" drug, what your body breaks it down into is also effective for ADD, so it has an overall longer "effective time" per dose. And best of all, it just came out in generic form!

I can't say enough good things about the drug. But keep in mind that that's just me and mine. Everybody reacts differently to psychoactive medications, and one person's miracle is another person's nightmare. But, for us, Focalin is the former, not the latter.

Good luck with the medication. I hope it works for you, and be sure to ask for the generic by it's name (dexmethylphenidate). Pharmacies will sometimes tell you there ISN'T a generic, but it's there, it's cheap, and it works just as well as the brand name.

Hope that helps.

Mikey
 

4sumrzn

New Member
Focalin mage difficult child very aggressive & nasty.....took her off of it after 3 days. You won't know if it works for him unless you try though....best of luck!
 

house of cards

New Member
Focalin was the last stimulant we tried, they all made my difficult child mean but Focalin worked well longer then the others before the mean took over.
 

crazymama30

Active Member
All stimulants work differently for different people. Focalin was one of the better ones for difficult child, tho he was on this before he took a mood stablizer and for him that makes a world of difference. He is now on Daytrana for a stimulant, and it seems to do good for him. It is Ritalin in a time release patch. It seems to work a more steady stream of medication into his system, without a huge dump of medications in the morning and afternoon like some tend to do. Most of the times, medications are a guess. There are no deffinitive tests for psychatric medications that say they need a certain medication.
 
difficult child was on Adderall for a long time. Then they tried him on Vyvanse. It worked great on the inattention but made him very MEAN and AGGRESSIVE. He came off of it after they adjusted it 3 times. He went back on Adderall.

The adderall doesn't really work with him anymore. I can tell a difference when he wasn't on it versus being on it BUT it makes him moody. I can't tell that it works on the inattention that much anymore.

They started him out on a low dose of Focalin Saturday and I could tell a major difference in his attitude that day. I don't know if it's because the Adderall was coming out of his system or what but I felt it was an improvement.

Of course his appetite is still barely there but from what I was told that's always going to be an issue while he's on these types of medications.
 
oh....I got the generic. AND the doctor gave me a card to get the first month free. We usually do mail order for a 3 month supply BUT we have to wait to see if this will work.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
I use Focalin every morning for the difficult child boys 1/2 hour before they get up for school, because the Daytrana patch they put on as they leave the house for school takes soooo long to kick in. By the time the Focalin wears off, the patch is working.

Focalin works GREAT for both my difficult children. For some reason the Focalin XR didn't work as well and they both were irritable on Adderall XR.

Good luck, hope it works for your difficult child!
 
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