Intuniv - Irritability/depression (Page 2) (Top voted first)

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My 11 yr old daughter was diagnosed with ADHD 5 yrs ago. We have still not found the right combination of medicines for her. Impulsive behavior became a major issue for us. Our ped neurologist suggested intuniv. Since she was also battling anxiety, she started zoloft and intunive while stopping stimulants completely. After a few months, we saw behavioral changes and opted to stop the zoloft. The intuniv alone was not enough to control the inattentiveness, so she is now on a stimulant along with the intuniv. Now we are struggling in a major way with her being disrespectful to us, screaming at us and her sisters, and just being plain out rude ugly to everyone. She thinks everyone is against her. When we speak to her in a authoritative tone, she thinks we are screaming at her. She thinks her teachers do not like her....etc, etc, etc. Just tonight, I started wondering if the Intuniv could be causing this type of side effect. I read the side effects online and it does say that it can cause irritability....but it is doing such a great job of controlling the hyperactivity and impulsivity in a way that the stimulant does not (since the stimulant has the crash and burn effect after a certain period of time). I am really stumped!

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57

My son 8yr old son was put on intunive 1mg he has been on it 2.5 mths and he has severe mood swings and is asking and crying for help. We are taking him off of it . I believe this medication is dangerous and not effective for anyone. It's awful. Hisanger is out of control since he started taking it and the risks are not worth it. They should take this off the market! I'm a nurse and it scares me to think what could happen to these children who are suffering on it.

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1

I have been prescribed zoloft 200mg a day for a little over a year and i have tried other mediations such as prozac, lexapro, celexa..and zoloft works wonderful for me! Ive realized when I didnt have them I would start getting really irrtable, and my anger problems that i forgot i even had came back and just wanted to scream and being nasty to my friends and family..Im 26 years old im a little older so I lost them for a few days and all those feelings came back to me. my psychiatrist even said its a very clean drug and it helps a lot of people..maybe just start with the /50mgs idk, they worked for me..good luck!

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7

have you considered CAPD for your daughter. The Book "when the brain cant hear" describes your daughter to the T. especially the nability to understand tone and context. Just something to think about and might explain why the adhd med may not address her behavior!

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14

Hi Teta and thank you for response. As I mentioned my son has been through extensive psychological evaluations by 2 different child mental healt offices, because his school, and I believed he had aspergers. He does have some autistic tendencies but he is not autistic. Believe me I was certain he was.. As far as noises or humming, he doesn't hum he generally is just in his own land- but like I said since the intunev he's been much more grounded and more interested in the people and activities around him which is wonderful. He is certainly more tired but this is a new med and when we started the first dose it went away after a few days, so I am hoping the same will happen with the new 2 mg dose. I am really just concerned that there might be something in the intunev causing depression, because he was never depressed before.
As far as being on so many meds, he is on 2 and we started with very low doses of these and the ones we tried before this. He has been working with a psychologist every week since he started kindergarten and even though he is incredibly intelligent, his ADHD has caused him to be unable to focus and do what he needs to do at school and at home to learn and be at level for his grade. I have him in sylvan for reading and he gets 1 on 1 math, reading and spelling at school because he cannot function without a 1 on 1 adult keeping him on track. Without the concerta, before we started the intunev, his brain is so all over the place it's like static electricity hit by lightning. The one day my husband forgot to give it to him the school called and had him bring it in or they were going to send my son home.
I am not a fan of medications and would much rather not have my children on anything at all. But I trust the doctors and psychologists we see now who have taken over his medication prescribing because this is their specialty.
I have tried changing his diet and vitamins natural remedies and many other things.. And I am sure there are many more we will try.

Anyway, we know that he has severe ADHD and OCD diagnosed by 2 different very well known psychiatrists specializing in children with ADHD and autism. I just pray that we are on the right track with the intunev because I would hate to switch him again.

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16

I know they say alot of Negative things about Ritlin and Adderral but I just went through this and my sister did yrs agao and all the other meds so not seem to even work and have all these side effects. The only thing I have ever seen work is the Ritlin and Adderral. The thing with them is too have it time released throughout the day and I see no side effects at all with great results. The research I have done and my DR said it is because the wearing off is what makes them moody and I find that true. I was adamant about my son being on a nonstimulant and now I regret it. He even thought there was something wrong because he was on so many different meds. He is doing great now again and has a happy attitude with life. He is still a 12yr old preteen but it is normal issues and attitude_not the disrespectful hate life cry stuff. When I found this discussion page I about died because the Intuiv doesn't even include irritibilaty or depression at all as a side effect so I thought my kid needed some serious counseling and I didn't even know why_his life is Ok. His Dad and I are both with him, good school, not alot of reasons to be so crazy and he was saying I need to go to a mental institution_WOW!! That is when I punched in Intuiv Depression and found this. I was almost relieved honestly. I took him off immediately and he has not said anything at all crazy and is the kid I always had!! With better grades on the oh so bad Adderral that I was so mad his Dad had put him on!

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18

Hi & thank you for responding, luckily we have seen a lot of improvement in my son - he is now on 2 mg intuniv and still 27 mg of concerta. He is really making leaps and bounds in school and his academics. I do not think we have perfected the meds yet, but I am hoping we are on the right track. Alex seems to have gotten past stating that he hates himself, or he has in front of me and our family. He still gets very frustrated with himself, but I think that this is more because he has been brought down out of the clouds enough to be mindful of his strengths and weaknesses. He was always in Alex-Land before, and now it's not much more than your average child. He still gets very stuck on things due to his OCD (or so we think) but this has gotten better, he is more able to come away from his obsessions with less meltdown, and to bounce back from any meltdowns much faster and most of the time without it putting the rest of the day in a funk.
We have found that he is going to bed with more difficulty, and at times even seems MORE hyper - but only sometimes.. For the first few weeks of the higher dose, he was extremely tired, even slept through a school day in the nurses office on the 4th day, and then he was getting up in the middle of the night and staying up (I generally don't sleep due to insomnia & nursing school so I study between 1030 and 8 am before class). But knock on wood he hasn't been getting up in the last 2 weeks, so hopefully that went with the daytime sleepiness. We do go back for another follow up in a week, so that's good - and the doctor and I have emailed back and forth checking in. So really it's just a waiting game, trial and hopefully no error. It does seem like during the first few weeks there may be side effects to Intuniv that subside thankfully. My instructor's son has William's Syndrome, MR, ADHD, scoliosis, and other disorders and is on 5 MG of intuniv, yes the max dose is 4 mg, but it has worked really well for him, all things considered.
My son has a huge support team between me, his mom who will fight til the death for him, my family, and teachers & para-educators at his school..
I do hope we are on the right track!
Thanks again -

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19

I am glad to hear that. Keep me informed I look forward to hearing back from you.
Kevin Profit Phd

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21

Yes, Intuniv can do this. I have two children on this medicine and i have taken one off because her brain was turning to (Jello) did not know anything anymore. The other one is acting the same way as your daughter. Your description fits him to a T. I will be taking him off that as well. I have already eliminated all artificial food dyes and preservatives. I have been giving them DHA/EPA supplements per their doctors suggestion. It does work and it's all natural. Although it does take a little time to build in the system. I am all for going natural.

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22

My daughter was on intuniv and it was like her brain was becoming jello, didn't know anything anymore and hated school, anger, nobody liked her. I took her off and as her doctor suggested I give her DHA/EPA (Fish Oil) that is suppose to help wilth ADHD and i will never put her on meds again. I can say I have my happy daughter back. ( I use Nordic Naturals DHA) for all my kids.

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25

Arlene, I am so glad I read your post...I thought I was going to have to get my son some major counseling myself...he is 12 also and had been on Intuniv for 4 months along with adderoll.. I started noticing at homework time alot of crying, fits on the floor...I have never seen my son cry like that ever...alot of I want to die, i dont know what is wrong with me, I just want it all to end.....really scared the you know what out of me. I thought it was the adderoll so I took him off it immediatly. Then it still continued, the school called all the time he was getting into trouble...I took him off as of today, I am hoping that he will be back to his normal self soon. When he was taking the Adderoll he had no appetite wouldnt eat at all so now I really dont know what to do. We tried Concerta and he developed a tic, I really am scared to try anything else. He has only focusing issues in school no behavor issues...

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26

She has now been off Intuniv ER for about two months, I can say, I have my daughter back. Her grades are only slightly improving however she does use her brain now. I have never seen such a thing. It was scary to watch. However my son is on the same thing and is doing great. It helps him, however the last month or so he complains about snakes and spiders all over his bed. He refuses to sleep under the covers and now needs a night light. Once school is out this year I will be taking him off it too, if it can wait that long. I hope everything works out for your child.

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28

Doc Kevin, have you ever known of Intuniv to cause aggression, rudeness, child to be disrespectful, severe mood changes. just thought I would ask, I know that its not really on the side effects list. thanks

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31

My son doesn't seem irritable on Intuniv, just more sleepy. I have him down to 1mg despite the fact that he is 5'4" 115 pounds, and he says it still makes him feel a little sleepy. We stopped using stimulants (Concerta, Vyvanse) because it was causing him to have an irregular heartbeat. Not sure where to go from here. I was hoping to cut the 1mg's in half, but it looks like they don't recommend doing that.

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32

My 10 year old son was diagnosed with ADHD and he has been on almost every medication prescribed. We recently decided we were tired of the Crash & Burn effect from the stimulants, so we opted for Intuititiv and he is now on 3mg. We have noticed the rudeness with anyone, he also says he teachers hate him, he is getting straight F's, Detentions left & right. Sleeping ALL THE TIME, thirsty & still wetting the bed. We are stumped too....We went the homiopathic(?) way a while ago & it made him worse.

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33

I think you're right about the hormonal thing. My son is 11 Almost 12 and we just started him on intuniv about 4 weeks ago. He's on 2 mg. He was on focal in 10 mg but I think he's add not ADHD. he hasn't been Aggressive or angry on intuniv but just really quiet and withdrawn. We're always asking him if he's ok or need to talk but I think it's just his age. He's probAbly going through puberty at the same time as we're giving this medicine. I'll keep it on him fora little longer and see what happens.

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34

I give the intuniv at night. My dr told me it lasts through the next day. He's been on it for about four weeks 2 mg. school just started about a week ago so I can't really get a good observation yet. I don't want to do stimulants anymore. I would really like to take him off for good but I know his teachers will be calling soon asking if he's on any meds...

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35

How about therapy? No one mentions that can also help. Pills are not skills. Therapy with meds can help.

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36

You have just described my son's behavior, he is 7 yr old he has Tourettes, ADHD & sensory problems. He also says the same things. He is on Intuniv for the last 2 wks, which has made him very emotional like he has never been before. But has slow down the bad behavior.....

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37

Please tell me how your daughter made out with her problems. My son is also on intuniv and Zoloft and has the same symptoms. I don't know what to do.

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38

What ever happened??? We are in the same boat now :(

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