Intuniv - Anyone try this med?

I just wanted to post an update for you on our experience with Intuniv. Not sure where you are at this med yet...

Anyway, after the initial tiredness and DS being on

Hi...

I thought i had posted a response to your most recent post...but apparently it's not there... anyway... i do not mind at all if you share our experience with Intuniv with your doctor. I don't know if it matters, but DS is 6 and has ben hovering around 50 pounds for quite some time.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

DS has been on this med for about three months now. Personally I am not all tha impressed with it. Doc wanted to try it with him (he is almost 7 and in 1st grade, btw) after he got suspended for two days from school for an incident in P.E. class. We were told by Doc (and all of the info I have read says the same) that it was very successful in kids with ODD as well as ADHD. When we started him on it, we were given a starter "kit" of free samples. We had to step him up over four weeks time. By week three he was sooooo drowsy that he was falling asleep in class. So his issues were "solved" by the fact that the poor kid couldn't stay awake. He fell asleep in the middle of the movie theater at a matinee! So i spoke to dr about this and he went back down to 2mg dose for him... there was no way he was going to make it up to the 4mg, which was the final dosage in the kit we were given. His drowsiness seemed to subside but then his impulsivity, etc, returned. So we are now giving him Focalin XR (which he was on in addition to Risperdal, before the suspension ordeal) and intuniv. We were supposed to see doctor this past week for a follow-up but dr had to re-schedule with us... we go back at end of this month. I am wondering if now that he is used to the current 2mg dose if we couldn't try him a little higher.

I guess like all meds it depends on the kid. Intuniv is a non-stimulant and needs to be built up in the system, similarly to Strattera, even though their mechanisms are different... it's the same idea of building up in system... anyway... DS had tried Strattera in past, too, without success.

I don't know if I am just at my wit's end b/c winter break has been three weeks (our school is on a cycle system, 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off) and then after going back to school for only 2 days, they've been off again for snow days. So it could just be me going nuts with my kids at home and stuck inside that I am not happy with his current med plan, or what...his two days back were good days... AND there have been less melt-downs during cycle break.

My only other issue with this med is that being so dang new your insurance company might have an issue with it. Ours covers it, but we have to pay a significantly higher co-pay than for most other brand name meds.

Not sure if I helped, but you can email me if you have any other questions about this.