Intuniv

[forkeeps251]

difficult child's latest psychiatric appointment was today. He saw a new person (a nurse practitioner). Although I did like some of what she said, some of it I found a little scary because she seems to be leaning more towards difficult child having a mood disorder rather than just ADHD and anxiety, as was diagnosed a few months ago by a private psychologist and the school psychiatric. She even said she thought we would end up with something like seroquel, which I don't like the thought of.

But what I'm actually wondering is about the new medications she perscribed him. She took him off Adderall (he had lost weight and it wasn't doing anything) and wants to start him on Intuniv 1mg. At this point I am still researching it. I have the script but I haven't filled it yet. I would like to get some more info on side effects and success. I think she perscribed this because she thought it would help with his aggression and impulsiveness.

I'm not sure she had a complete history on him though...

I've gotten such good feedback on here I though I would see if anyone has used this and what has the success been.

 

[Californiablonde]

MY son was on Intuniv for about a month. His teacher reported that it helped his focus a little bit but he was constantly still having to be re-directed so we decided to try something else. He is now on Focalin and doing much better. The only side effect he had was sleepiness for the first couple of days and then it kept him awake at night. From what I've heard, insomnia is rare with it and if anything it tends to make you more sleepy. Good luck to you and I hope it works for him.

 

[TeDo]

difficult child 1 can't take stimulants so he is on Strattera but Intuniv is also a non-stimulant ADHD medication. difficult child 1 takes the short-acting version of Intuniv at night to help calm him down so he can sleep.

 

[justour2boys]

I have 2 difficult children that takes Guanfacine, the oldest takes Guanfacine (the generic name) twice a day along with- Vyvance and the youngest takes Intuniv (the once-a-day brand name of Guanfacine) along with- Concerta and here is our experience.

Both difficult children started using the generic Guanfacine since it was less expensive place to start in case it did not work. Oldest stayed with the twice a day since he is taking 0.5 mg in AM and 1 mg in PM due to a drop in blood pressure. After all, it is a medication for blood pressure. But youngest moved on to Intuniv 2 mg for convenience, but it is a name brand so it is expensive.

Both difficult children take the medication in the late afternoon(4:00 pm) for 2 reasons. It seems to help with rebound from the stims and to wind down for bed. We found the sleepiness side effect only during initial dose and dose changes, but back to "normal" after 2 weeks.

So for my difficult children, Guanfacine seems to work best together with a stimulant, the combo of medications seems to work well. For us, the Guanfacine/Intuniv helps with the impulsiveness, while the stims help with focus and hyperness.

But, and there is a big one.... We have decided to put oldest difficult child on a medication vacation this summer due to weight issues or I should say lack of weight. So... no stimulant but Dr kept him on the Guanfacine.

Its been a few days with out a stimulant, and lets just say I DO NOT think the Guanfacine is helping AT ALL. While my oldest does have some impulsiveness, lack of focus is his big struggle.

So in our house... it is going to be a llloooonnngggg summer with no stimulant!

 

[TiredSoul]

My difficult child takes 2 Mg of Intuniv and 27 Mg Concerta. He takes both first thing in the morning. We initially added Intuniv over a year ago because he was having some major meltdowns in the evenings often lasting more than an hour. Almost immediately the meltdowns were reduced in both quantity and duration. We now want to titrate him down and see if it is still needed. It is always hard to know for sure if the medication is what is helping or what. His diagnosis is adhd and odd. He is being evaluated for Aspergers too. We did try to increase to 3 Mg and he was very sleepy and it scared me so we kept it at 2 Mg.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[jal]

My difficult child also cannot handle stimulants and we have tried everything under the sun. He currently takes 3MG Intunive at dinner and 15MG fluxotine in the morning. Intuniv is the only medication that has really helped with his focus. He has been on it for over a year with very great success and no side effects. His diagnosis is ADHD and Mood not otherwise specified.

 

[forkeeps251]

Thanks for all the replies! I'm hoping this is the one that will work for us. difficult child does have problems staying focused, but his biggest problem is impulsivness and aggression. Especially since it is summer. He started out on 5 and then 10 mg of Adderall. We didn't notice a huge difference... or much of a difference at all. He did start doing better in school, but that coincided more with when they changed his schedule up (he went from being in gen ed all day to switching between that and going to the resource room 30 minutes three times a day). Summer day camp has been good for the first two weeks, until two days ago when they said he was in danger of being kicked out because he had bit someone, twice... although I never heard about the first time. So... all that is to say is that because the stimulant wasn't doing much of anything, and he had lost a pound or two, they took him off it. I beleive she perscribed the Intuniv thinking that it would help with his impulsiveness. The nurse practitioner I saw didn't think that his lashing out at other children (hitting, biting, etc) is a sign of ADHD... although everyone else who has evaluated him did think it was probably related. She did say that we ought to start therapy though.

So, last night we began the Intuniv. We didn't see the sleepiness much that I was expecting. I gave it to him at about 8, and he was still up at 9 but fell asleep shortly after that. Thats pretty much par for the course. But this morning he was up a good bit before the rest of us, which isn't totally unheard of but it is unusual. I guess all we can do now is "wait and see", as I've been told it may take a few weeks to build up in his system.