Experiences with Medication for ADHD

[Indoctro]

Hello my 7 year old is going through a assessment for ADHD and medication has been mentioned

I'm after parents reports of pros/cons/ side affects etc of medication your kids have tried.

I'd just like to be clued up on what the possible medications are and what side effects etc might arise for when we get to
that step.

Thanks in advance

KingsHeath to the contrary (and I’m not blaming anyone other than myself here because I chose this route) privately you can get adhd meds almost instantaneously. A quick checklist, online chat, no review of DS. Questions were simply things like does he find it hard to concentrate? Does he sit for long periods. Er…. Yes and no respectively. Fab, here’s your meds. DH is now saying maybe we have managed to get hold of them too easily. Maybe a checklist doesn’t tell you if he has ADHD? We didn’t want an 18 month wait under CAMHS but maybe this is the price you pay.

That sounds incredible @carriebradshawwithlessshoes - is the checklist done by a psychiatrist or a paediatrician at least? But if so, surely it isn't remotely ethical to prescribe by checklist for a child who may not have adhd but something else, requiring different treatment? I am really shocked.

@carriebradshawwithlessshoes

KingsHeath to the contrary (and I’m not blaming anyone other than myself here because I chose this route) privately you can get adhd meds almost instantaneously. A quick checklist, online chat, no review of DS. Questions were simply things like does he find it hard to concentrate? Does he sit for long periods. Er…. Yes and no respectively. Fab, here’s your meds. DH is now saying maybe we have managed to get hold of them too easily. Maybe a checklist doesn’t tell you if he has ADHD? We didn’t want an 18 month wait under CAMHS but maybe this is the price you pay.

You could arrange a QB test with and without meds. Might give you confidence in the diagnosis?

We start Medikinet tomorrow @Indoctro

I will tag you into my thread now as promised and will be posting daily updates. If anyone else wants to come and give advice I would be so grateful

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs_chat/4466553-Starting-Medikinet-any-experts-around in case anyone wants to post on there

I found the 'medicines for children' website (link below) really useful for finding information about all the different ADHD medications I think the NHS usually start with Methylphenidate I.e. Concerta or Equasym Xl - both immediate plus delayed release over the day (in differing proportions), or Tranquilyn - immediate release.

https://www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/medicines?medicine-search=ADHD+

If you have any other questions I'm happy to try and answer them (I, and my three dc, all have ADHD and take medication for it - and between us we've tried most of the different types!).

Thanks x

I can post a bit more by way of update. So the private provider said maybe to try 5mg of medikinet not the 10mg, said it was maybe a bit too much? It’s supposed to last 8 hours, the alternative is to try a 4 hour one (a different stimulant.) By coincidence I had an appointment last week with the nhs paed so I ran all this past her, I told her of our experience on the medikinet 10 mg but waited to see what she said.

It was interesting as her advice was exactly the same… try 5mg of medikinet XL. If further issues next step would be the shorter acting 4 hour stimulant.

So… today gave him the 5 mg. I have to say it was quite good. He was very calm, no loss of appetite, a bit of playing with his tongue but nothing like the previous mouth tics. Went to bed same time. It’s almost like it’s knocked the edge off his hyperactivity but not been super dramatic.

Going to try again tmrw and then next week at school which will be the acid test (if they notice anything.)

I raised my concerns with the paed about the easy diagnosis. All done on a questionnaire, they haven’t seen DS etc. She didn’t seem concerned, said she would be sceptical of an autism assessment carried out like that but wasn’t concerned about the adhd one. So let’s see I suppose….

Thank you Happy that’s really helpful x

@carriebradshawwithlessshoes really pleased to hear things are better - you must be really pleased!

We start tomorrow and I’ve just read the side effects leaflet. That’s enough to put anyone off!

How did it go MissHaversham?? Hopefully ok?? Day 2 for us, very like yesterday. School tomorrow… interesting to see if they comment!

Glad to hear day two went well @carriebradshawwithlessshoes and really hope tomorrow school can see a positive change

I’ve posted about our day 1 today in some detail on my thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs_chat/4466553-Starting-Medikinet-any-experts-around

TLDR: morning good - very like you in having taken the edge off the hyper-ness but nothing earth shattering. Bedtime ok BUT afternoon v tricky - ds v irritable which is out of character and wanted to sleep.

Fingers crossed for a good day 3 for you guys and day 2 for us tomorrow.

I think I’m reading too many posts on this and getting confused (doesn’t take much tbh…!). Let me look at that one and I’ll post there x