Strattera and puberty - ADD / ADHD Message Board

jboon · 06-18-2003, 05:41 PM

After reading the posts by men taking Strattera, I wonder how worried I should be about the possibility of long term effects on my son's sexual development. Is using a medication with unknown long term effects worth the risk? The sexual side effects many of the men posted were pretty awful. Are any of the rest of you worried about whether or not growing boys may have long term or permanent effects from this drug?

lasthope · 06-19-2003, 04:38 PM

jboon
Glad you asked this again...I asked about a week ago and didn't get any takers. My son is in puberty and this week has been really tired all day and now says his joints hurt...have a call into my pediatrician. Might mean getting off Strattera. I am also going to look into biofeedback...supposed to help kids who have tried all of the meds...which we have
lasthope

lasthope · 06-24-2003, 06:27 AM

dear jboon
My son is now in the 4th week of Strattera...can't see where it is having any positive effects...he is still tired, his temper is trigger ready and his attention isn't any better. He is sleeping but I am not sure he feels rested???? Also I think he is recovering from being tired for a long time which was masked by the concerta which hopped him up. We are not doing any concerta right now. My doc wants to give it two more weeks to see if his body adjusts. Not sure which way to go. We will start a total re-eval process in August and I am trying to have him classified so he qualifies for the resource room at the Jr. School...will take an act of congress as he has all A's and B's but so much of it was due to my husband and myself riding him for the past several years. That puts us in the bad guy role and doesn't allow us to be parents...they work on organizational skills and self esteeme issues and get him ready for high school.
Interested in how your son is doing this summer...also we haven't had much feedback from others taking strattera in either of our posts...

Oma61 · 06-24-2003, 10:02 AM

Hi jboon and lasthope,

I am B_Grl_Online's mom...just to identify myself! I hope she has been able to give you a little feedback from the mind of a teen with ADD. She is a very smart girl...just like your son, lasthope...all A's and B's at school, but she has a horrible time focusing on her school work if she's not on meds. Her grades drop dramatically when off of them. She has taken methylphenidate (Ritalin) in most of it's forms since she was 6. The methylphenidate always helped with her attention so I was rather surprised when the doctor wanted to switch her to Strattera about a month ago. I was not too excited about the switch, but since it is summer and finals are over (she just finished 9th grade), we are giving it a try.

As far as puberty goes...I haven't noticed a whole lot of strange symptoms with the Strattera. I think it does make my daughter more mellow and less impulsive. She is not hyperactive in the usual sense of the word, she just talks a lot and can't seem to ignore conversations that don't involve her. She also seems to enjoy provoking her younger sisters into an argument when she's not on meds! She is an active girl and even though the Strattera mellows her out, it hasn't turned her into a zombie either. She is tall, about 5'7", and slender...so all those years on Ritalin didn't seem to affect her growth (unless, of course, she was SUPPOSED to be 6 feet tall!).

Like any kid, she has her "up days" and her "down days" too. She is very interested in the health field and also in computers. Thankfully, her interests keep her busy most of the time...she spends a lot of spare time at the library in the computer room. I would venture to guess that most "people on the street" would never know that she has ADD, but she really does and it does affect her life. It is quite possible that she has some learning disabilities, too, but since she is very intelligent she has always been able to escape LD identification at the school. Because our school is very small, she has been able to take advantage of some of the special ed help without actually having an IEP. She takes some of her tests in the resource room so she can have more time to complete them and so she won't be so distracted. The meds help a lot with the ADD symptoms, but I also think adjusting the learning environment is a big plus.

I am curious to see how the Strattera works during the school year because it is hard to really tell if it helps her focus during the summer months. She does say that it helps her to concentrate enough to get lost in a book...that is very unusual w/o any meds.

If you have any questions about B_Grl_Online's ADD, any teen symptoms or anything else that comes to mind, just ask, I'm happy to talk about what has or has not worked for us. She is happy to help, too. I also have a 7 year old daughter who is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and so far none of the meds we have tried on her have worked at all! I am curious to find out if she truely has AS or possibly a really extreme case of ADHD w/ LD's. She is rather sociable for AS. She does have an IEP and is in Sp Ed 1/2 the day, every day, at school. I can surely sympathize with you both on how difficult it can be when you are trapped in the ADHD/meds/LD maze!!!

Best wishes...

jboon · 06-24-2003, 06:46 PM

Lasthope,

Luckily for my son, he goes to an excellent public school. He was recently identified with a "communication disorder." His performance on the tests for learning disabilities was not low enough to officially label him with a language disability, but because his IQ was high, the point discrepancy between his potential and his performance was significant, thereby qualifying him for an IEP and special ed services when he starts middle school. His grades (except for C's in math) have always been A's and B's, like your son. In Maryland, they call it GTLD (LD kids with high IQ's). They are the ones who most often fall between the cracks because they're smart enough to compensate to the point that they don't fail. Insofar as the Strattera is concerned, he has been taking it with one 10 mg dose of Ritalin since school let out last week. The Strattera does seem to help his hyperactivity and impulsivity levels, but not the focusing. He's not talking incessently and when I watch him, long after the morning dose of Ritalin has worn off, compared to other boys his age, he certainly doesn't stand out. He does seem moodier--he's usually the happy one in our family--more easily agitated than before, but he eats and sleeps. He's not tired all the time, unlike your son. I still think I may try him on Concerta again when school starts--hopefully, the break from it will make it work better. Also, we've never tried him on Aderrall (sp?), so I guess we still have that option if the concerta still isn't effective. As I told you before, the male side effects really worry me.