Comments on: Intuniv for ADHD: Efficacy, Side Effects

By: obeatrice

obeatrice — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:05:26 +0000

Hello everyone I am trying INTUNIV with my child med that he’s already is taking. Hope that i get some release from school with this, may he will start doing better and stay focus and not talking so much……..

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:48:33 +0000

I have had my son on Intuniv since the miiddle of July and he is on 2mg right ;;now along with Adderal.

I am not sure that this is the right combination. He has been having some of the tantrums and has been supersensitive too. But he has had a diagnosis of ODD for awhile. The other thing is that he is constantly complaining about his stomach hurting him, but his doctor said it is not the Intuniv. I am not so sure.

As for the cost of it, it will cost me 63.00 a month with insurance. I have been having some trouble with getting the discount with my prescription card, but I will try again if he stays on it.

The bedwetting could be a problem for us, I just don’t know if it is related, because my son was born with a bladder condition, called bladder exstrophy and has issues with control his urine, so he has to wear pads during the day and overnites at night. I am not sure how many people have bedwetting as a side effect, but if it is, it will only make things worse for my son.

By: Tonya

Tonya — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:58:52 +0000

Katherine, ask your Dr. if they have any Intuniv rx cards. This card will allow you to get the meds for 15.00 a month for a year. I have insurance, and without the card it would be 54.00. Plus my Dr. gave me 3 months of samples in 1,2,3 mgs. Hope this os helpful too you.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 05:27:35 +0000

For anyone looking for comments after several months of Intuniv:
Our son, Jon (6 almost 7) has been on 2 mg since spring. We have noticed that the major downside seems to be tantrums/emotional supersensitivity. We are working through anger management with him but it’s a long road. Right now, he had to go down to 1 mg because of healthcare being cancelled (we’re trying to draw our supply out as long as possible) and we noticed the decrease in meds has given him quite a bit more energy (no more sleeping through church) but he still seems within the normal range for hyperactivity. He’s doing well in school so far. However, those things aside, we are talking about (if/when healthcare comes back) starting Vyvanse with Intuniv. We are hoping to work around some of this emotional overload (ie, little sister says “I like chocolate and Jon doesn’t” and we have tears and yelling immediately! yikes.)….anybody else found any help with this area?

By: Frances

Frances — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:25:13 +0000

@Missy:
I can relate to a degree. My son initially was diagnosed with just plain old ADHD. Then the 2nd school that we went to insisted that he had ODD. i demanded a 2nd opinion with a different panel of specialists and they all agreed that he has classic ADHD – is the “poster child” for it according this neuro dr. that we saw. Anyway, when we put him on Concerta – it made him more hyper and aggressive. Certain stimulant meds do that = stim meds make them even more hyper = it did with my child… So I sometimes wonder: why bother medicating them with even more stimulants when they are already so very hyper in the first place? When we put our son on Intuniv, it no longer made him very hyper but more focused and he did very well this year in school. The tiredness, sleepiness in the afternoon, weird dreams, and a few bedwetting accidents at night but those were all the side effects that we experienced. So for us, we were pretty happy until he got used to the dosage, it just kept wearing off after about 2 months. The anger or destructive behavior that we experienced when he was on Concerta was gone. Sometimes despite the family situation, it is the meds that may make the kids more aggressive. Well, that’s my opinion anyways. Why not try just giving him the Intuniv alone but doing it at the lowest possible dose (2mg? for your boy) or try the next dose of 3mg and seeing what happens? Also by comboing some of the meds, it may not be good for your child while it works for others. It seems like your ADHD boy is not responsive to stimulant meds(my son is also not responsive to stim meds – they made him even more hyper which is not what we expected or desired – the additional side effects of not eating, not sleeping, and being angry/destructive/aggressive was almost too much for us to bear). My only other choice other than intuniv would have been VYVANSE because I heard from a few moms that some of their kids did well with it. I really did not know what to do because we already had gone thru Metadate, Focalin and Concerta without comboing and their side effects were not good for us. Also my son did weird things when eating, not picky or anything but just weird. Bathtime, he freaks out when I touch his hands to dry them afterwards, so I had that evaluated and found out that he has just a touch of sensory disorder. Also with ADHD kids, I am realizing that most of the people here that have posted have combinations of ADHD with something else. Please do not feel like you are alone! Just keep trying! Don’t lose hope! I hope that this helps….I’ve seen some of the other parents here giving the Intuniv at night so that the child benefits from the sleep maybe switiching the application of the med to a different time would help? I was also told for us to try Strattera but I’m too nervous about the “black” label where it warns about suicide. Adderal was another recommendation for us as well. I know that eventually when our time with Intuniv is over, at the rate that our child’s body is getting used to it. It will max out at 4 mgs, we will have to start all over again, so I’m thinking Vyvanse. Please let me know how it goes for you.

By: Kristy

Kristy — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:13:03 +0000

I can relate. I have an 8 year old and it seems like when I get a medicine to help with hyperactivity then it doesn’t help him focus. Finally we are trying a combo of 36 mg Concerta for hyperactivity and 40 mg Strattera for focus. He has been taking the Strattera at night until his body gets use to the medicine. I like the combo, he sleeps and eats really well. I hope when we move the Strattera to the morning we will have focusing. Anyway I was thinking because you complain of the hyperactivity with the Strattera, maybe you should do the Concerta combo? Good luck

By: Missy

Missy — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:45:52 +0000

I have a 9 year old son that has been on meds for 3 years. We started out with Focalin XR 15 mg. It worked for a little while but after a year it start not working so we up’d the med to 20mg. It made him non responsive and loss of appetite altogether. We lowered the dose back to 15mg and added Intuniv 2mg to see if that would help. We saw him get very tired after he came off of it in the afternoons. He would fall asleep when we picked him up after school and esp at 5pm. We saw no difference and he wasn’t getting any better. So we recently tried Strattera and did the step up method from 5mg to 40mg. This med made him so hyper…..it was better for him to not even be on medicine. Now we are trying Methylin 10mg twice a day. It works during the day but he is hyper at night. Has troubling calming down to go to sleep. He has been on this for 4 days. Have put a call into doctor to see if the hyper will go away and see what we should do. Doctor seems to think he has some other underlying diagnosis besides ADHD….we are looking into that. Anyone have any suggestions? Im looking into counseling for the family …son is already in counseling. Here is my child to a T: He is ODD, ADHD, also has sensory disorder with sounds, eating, smells; alot of built up anger due to divorce, step-father, school, school bullies, new meds. Can anyone relate?

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:16:52 +0000

I’m so glad I found this thread. We just started intuniv two days ago and I was very worried about how tired he seemed to get around 4pm. We give him 1mg around 7am when he wakes up and he’s fine all day until around 4 and then he gets very very tired. He was diagnosed at 3 with PDD-NOS and Acute Anxiety Disorder. He’s been taking prozac since he was 3 and we’ve had wonderful results with it. Lately we had been seeing a lot of impulse control issues and hyperactivity so his autism doc suggested Intuniv. She suggested it last year, but we took a whole year to think it over. I will come back and give an update on his reaction again soon. Doc hasn’t said anything about increasing it so I know he’ll be on 1mg for at least 1 full month.

By: Dani

Dani — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:36:31 +0000

My 10 year old daughter recently just started taking intuniv. She has been on medication sine she was 7, taking ritalin, methylin, and daytrana. I felt the daytrana worked the best as far as keeping her calm and focused. Only problem is she kept getting skinnier and skinnier and has been stuck at 43 pounds for the last year. We are trying intuniv in hopes she gains her weight back. After the first night of taking it, I noticed she was tired and went to sleep without a fuss. She was a little hyper and not listening before hand, but went to sleep without a screaming tantrum. The next day, she complained about a headache, and took a 2 hour nap. She has never napped since baby time. I figure it’s a side effect. The next night I had given her 1mg again, she fell asleep for an hour, but got up in a screaming tantrum and wouldn’t stop. Lasted for an hour, and kept crying how bad her head was hurting. Kept crying for an icepack for her head. I finally gave her some tylenol, she went to sleep 20 minutes after that. Her doctor orignially told me that taking this would help with her tantrums and being disobidient. I know I have to be patient, but just a little worried when she starts school again. When she wakes in the morining, sometimes its seems as if she’s not on anything. She still has her attitute problem, just not as crazy.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 01:11:10 +0000

My son has been on intuniv for a few months. He is 5 and diagnosed with Autism, high functioning. I was terrified to start the meds but knew it was time. He is anxious and hyperactive, lots of sensory issues affecting his learning in school and home life. We started him on 1 mg and is still on it. He took in the in the am and was falling asleep all day and was very lethargic and was up all night so we switched the time we gave it to him to the night time. He now sleeps beautifully and his anxiety and focus has become soooo much better, I am amazed at this medecine. We may go up to 2 mg we are still deciding. He has also had a hard time being toilet trained with poop but this has improved with the medication!! He goes on his own. His appetite is just fine as well. I was worried it would not be …