Like any AD, it can take several weeks to fully begin working. We used imipramine for difficult child 1's bedwetting and it definitely helped him stop. When he was on it, I also noticed that he was a lot less grumpy and less anxious. He was on it for about a year or so, and then psychiatrist said he could go off since the bed wetting had been resolved for a while. Then the irritability came back, as did the anxiety. psychiatrist really didn't take a lot of stock in my observations until a few years later when we were having needle phobia issues. Then he finally conceded that difficult child 1 did have anxiety issues.
I hope this works better for him than the SSRI's did. Some people do better on tricyclics -- I'm supposedly one of them since Celexa didn't make much of a dent in my symptoms. I've been on desipramine (close cousin of imipramine) for nearly 8 years now and it's really kept things on an even keel for me.
The side effects that were most bothersome for me was sweating (which got much better over time), and my heart started pounding by the end of the day. So now I take a low dose of propranolol (Inderal) to counter that and everything's fine.
Some people get dry mouth and sedation on the tricyclics, which is why they usually recommend you take them at bedtime.
Fingers crossed this helps him!
