Medikinet 10mg

[louise7728]

Hello,

i was wondering if anyone is able to advise on Medikinet. i realise every child is different, so it won't be the same for everyone. My son (aged 8), has been diagnosed with ADHD and started Medikinet 10mg last week. My understanding is that this is an “in and out” medication, so he takes it around 7.30-8.00am and then it wears off around 3.00 – 4.00pm. Therefore, if we haven’t seen any noticeable good affects, do we need to adjust the dose? People keep saying to me, give it time...it's too soon to tell. However, if the medication is "in and out" - why is it then too soon?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Louise

You should be able to see a difference. There is no build up. It’s is generally accepted that it is raised gradually after a week or so and monitored till you can see the effect and hopefully it is positive

My son is on medikinet XL. He’s only just turned 5 and takes 15mg at 7.30am and 10mg at 12.30pm as it wears off quickly with him.
I see a change in his behaviour about 45 mins after his morning dose. If you can’t see a change then I would suggest the dose is too low.

Thank you both for your replies, i definitely think his dose is too low. Can i ask, with taking 10mg at 12.30 - has this disturbed his sleep at all? Trying to get hold of the paediatricians is painful at the moment! I didn't really want him to take the meds at school...due to him being singled out. However, if i give him the meds at 7.30-8.00am, they will wear off by about 1.30pm. He is also really irritable with me when he gets home from school. Which makes me worry about medication rebound? have you experienced this at all?

When my son first started taking Medikinet we had some adjustments for similar reasons. He started taking 2 a day and didn't like he had to take one at lunch time as it took him out the class (he is in an asd unit at mainstream). We changed to the XL, which lasts the day and then adjusted the dose over a period of a couple of months. School reported changes almost immediately once he started. Taking the meds is the only thing that has kept him at his current placement, and avoided a move to more specialist schools. I held off until Year 8 as I too didn't want to jump to medicate, but it has allowed his brain to actually concentrate enough to be able to learn which he is unable to do without it. We don't medicate at weekends or holidays though as one of the side effects is lack of appetite.

If he experiences sleep issues that you cannot resolve with medication change or timing, you could ask about Melatonin.

Keep calling and say you need a review, which is really common at the start, like any medication it can need tweaking.

Hope that helps. (smile)

It hasn’t made his sleep any worse than it was. He has 3mg melatonin every night and that does the trick.
I know this level of meds isn’t everyone’s choice, especially for a kid of 5, but he is also PDA and the meds are the only thing keeping us all afloat!

Not seeing any particular rebound, he’s hyper when the pm one wears off but he’s be hyper if he wasn’t taking them at all.

thank you all - it's so helpful to actually speak to people who are going through the same experience. I finally got through to someone yesterday and they have agreed to up the dose to 20mg, so will see if that makes a difference. I know it's all trial and error and we all have to do what is right for our children and for our own sanity!!

The short release medicine last about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. A long release (e.g. Concerta XL in theory lasts 12 hours but I'd say it's more like 6 or 7 hours). My 9 year old is trialling elvanse (lisdexamphetamine), but was on 56mg methylphenidate per day. He would have a 10mg medicine, then 2 hours later a Concerta XL 36, and if needed another 10mg top up after school.

If I only gave him the 10mg pill, it would wear off by about 10:00am. Not much use. And since he's at school then I'd never see the benefit.

My DD has just started this med and is waking up at 5am every morning unable to go back to sleep.

Did anyone else have the same problem?

And OP how did you get on with it?

Thank you

@Estan

The short release medicine last about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. A long release (e.g. Concerta XL in theory lasts 12 hours but I'd say it's more like 6 or 7 hours). My 9 year old is trialling elvanse (lisdexamphetamine), but was on 56mg methylphenidate per day. He would have a 10mg medicine, then 2 hours later a Concerta XL 36, and if needed another 10mg top up after school.

If I only gave him the 10mg pill, it would wear off by about 10:00am. Not much use. And since he's at school then I'd never see the benefit.

Hi Estan How did you find the Elvanse .

We have just been prescribed today .

Wondering how you got on with it .

Thanks

Hi Apinke. It was a complete flop. We found that the effectiveness (help with attention/focus and calming of the hyperactivity) wore off after about 5 to 6 hours. But the stimulant effect of the medicine went on well into the night. So, he hardly slept. School said he was totally inattentive and hyperactive and they spent the last third of the day telling jokes and not engaging in the education.

However...

My 15 year old started on methylphenidate a few years ago and it aggravated his ticks. Se he switched to Elvanse and we've never looked looked back. He prefers Elvanse. But it does effect his sleep. But (weirdly) in spite of having ADHD he is a fantastic sleeper so having his sleep affected a little bit isn't catastrophic.

So, it depends on the child/person. For DS2 it was terrible, for DS1 it works. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

@Estan

Hi Apinke. It was a complete flop. We found that the effectiveness (help with attention/focus and calming of the hyperactivity) wore off after about 5 to 6 hours. But the stimulant effect of the medicine went on well into the night. So, he hardly slept. School said he was totally inattentive and hyperactive and they spent the last third of the day telling jokes and not engaging in the education.

However...

My 15 year old started on methylphenidate a few years ago and it aggravated his ticks. Se he switched to Elvanse and we've never looked looked back. He prefers Elvanse. But it does effect his sleep. But (weirdly) in spite of having ADHD he is a fantastic sleeper so having his sleep affected a little bit isn't catastrophic.

So, it depends on the child/person. For DS2 it was terrible, for DS1 it works. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Thanks Estan.

We are starting tommorow .Just picked up today and it was too late to start as I didn't want him not to sleep .
Fingers crossed it will work for him.I will let you know how we get on.

Many thanks

Hi all
Hope you don’t mind me jumping on the thread! I have finally managed to get a telephone app with our local hospital to ask for meds for my son who was diagnosed years ago with ADHD. (He’s 8 now) It has taken a year to get this app due to covid and I’m really hoping they will allow some meds for him to try, at the same time I’m really nervous any meds will make him more hyper!

Around how long has it taken people to find a good match for their child with all the different meds out there. Should I not get my hopes up for any sudden improvements.

I’m so scared they will say no due to covid restrictions or something like that so got my fingers crossed and my heart in my mouth

So he has been prescribed Medikinet 10ml, he will start taking it Monday doctor told me not to tell anyone and just see if anyone notices a difference. I hope it works and isn’t too painful an experience for us all.

lousie7728 have things settled now for you or are you still tweaking doses?

Any advice from anyone would be appreciated I don’t know of anyone IRL who is going through this or has been through it. Thanks

Is he on slow release? Or just one 10mg short release table in the morning?

My 8 year old is on 20mg Medikinet XL and that is the right dose for him now (seemed too much back in summer, even though he's a big lad). We have only ever tried this but we went through phases of thinking it wasnt the right medication for him, but for the time being it works well. If he hasn't had it in the morning we can always tell! And certainly know when it's worn off too... Thankfully he's a good sleeper but he does get up very early most of the time as can't settle himself back to sleep once he's awake. Hope you get sorted, it's hard getting it right especially with access to the right people so restricted more than ever (not that it was particularly easy before!)

Apparently it should start working within an hour of having it. May last up to 8hrs. Guess I just have to actually get it down him first! I’m nervous, hoping he doesn’t have any palpitations or bad side effects that scare him. Still it must be done. Fingers crossed for a smooth day.

My 10 year old, who is quite small, takes a 10 mg short release methylphenidate first thing in the morning, followed by 45mg slow release, and then a 10mg short release at the end of the school day. This is quite a high dose so I figure his ADHD is quite severe. But I thought it might help put your dose in perspective. When he started methylphenidate, our psychiatrist advise that I should worry too much about the list of side effects on the information leaflet that comes in the bottle. He said the only side effect his patients report is reduced appetite. And, indeed, his appetite is reduced. But we get round that by ensuring he has a healthy breakfast and dinner, full of nutrition and lots of healthy fats/carbs/calories.

Good luck with medication/dose. Let us know how you get on.

Thank you Estan yes that does help me with the dosage as 10mg would then be considered a small dose compare to the amounts that the dosage can be increased to, thanks. No changes today but only day 1 will see if we think anything has changed by the end of the week. Thanks

Hi my 11yr old son was diagnosed about 8 weeks ago with ADHD and suggested Asd to, not diagnosed yet! He's been put on atomoxetine started on 10mg, then upto 20mg then upto 28mg started off ok but over the last week everything has gone back to how it was before he was diagnosed, horrendous anger, breaking things etc we've now been told to stop medication for 2 wks! Just wondered if anyone else had experienced this, feel totally devastated as thought going on medication would finally make life bearable!

Barneybear2 sorry to hear things aren’t going too great for you it won’t be forever, you will find something that works eventually it’s just getting to that point and how long it will take that’s the question mark.

For me I’m trying to view the medication as more of a journey rather than some quick acting solution. I’m hoping that in 6-12months things will have improved for us and trying not to pin my hopes on anything (even though at the back of my mind I am as I often feel desperate).

There are so many different types of these drugs and different doses I’m thinking it would be some sort of miracle for the doctor to get it right first pick. It’s much more likely things will need tweeting and changing to match each individual.

Guess they want you to wait 2 weeks to clear his system of that drug before trying something else.

Do our children feel different to the point they might rebel against it and act out to feel what was their normal again, I don’t know 🤷‍♀️

It is shit though that things have gone to pot for you this time but next time it might work out, all we can do is keep trying. Out of all the different combinations of drugs something will work it’s just finding it.

I’m sure I’ll be on here banging my head against the wall when things don’t go to plan for me soon enough. At least we are trying.