Posted by spoc on April 24, 2004, at 11:32:19
In reply to Re: Ritalin's effect changed. Why o why??, posted by Cyleilo on April 24, 2004, at 8:30:18
> Does anyone know if this phenomenon of Ritalin working, then not working, happens with children who take it? We've been advised and are considering Ritalin for our 9 year old son, but we have a lot of anguish and trepidation about giving him any drugs at all. If it's a short lived solution and then he'll feel terrible, I definitely don't want to try it out on him. He's already in enough pain.
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I am mostly guessing unfortunately, and oddly given my usual way of doing things, I didn't look extensively into Ritalin's spectrum when I was put on it. But, as far as feeling good on it for weeks and then having it backfire (like blondegirl and I were discussing), I *kind of* got the feeling that that is the exception. Just because my pdoc (who, I should add, I came not to trust!) acted like he had never heard such a thing, and when I posted about it here a few weeks ago there was no strong response backing up that this is typical. But then again only a couple responses came in.I have gathered though that the ups and downs and crashes within a day that some get is fairly common. And that being on something like Adderall or Dex somehow helps avoid that. I have read that using the extended release version of Ritalin will not necessarily serve the same purpose, as in reality it is not released in a consistent way throughout the day as claimed; and that it often doesn't really last much longer than the regular. But I also wonder if there is a reason that -- and I could be very wrong here -- docs seem to lean towards trying Ritalin first. Somehow maybe it would be ideal *if* this was the one that worked for a given individual.
I don't know what the "advisability" of Strattera is for a first-line choice, but that would be another thing to ask your doc about. If you do, keep in mind that many say the titration that is typically advised by docs is in reality a recipe for disaster, and should be done much, much slower. Let me know if you ever need a link to that. And, I *think* Wellbutrin can be tried for ADD as well, although I don't know if that is going in the right procedural direction or not.
You might also want to post this as a separate thread sometime, maybe stating in your title that your child is the issue. For some reason it kinda seems like Ritalin/stimulants is a subject you need to wave more flags about to get lots of responses, more so than other meds posted about here. And, are you good at finding forums online? Maybe a reputable looking one that is geared towards parents would be helpful, although the quality of info for adults here is great.
Whatever you do, if you do some site searches using the Google search engine here, and then talk to your doc, you will probably be armed with a lot of good information to have him answer to. To help avoid the situation where someone is told no more than necessary, in order to get them to comply. If the doc is unwilling to address all your questions with patience, I'd wonder about him! Good luck!
poster:spoc
thread:338109
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040423/msgs/339517.html