Can someone Please comment. My oldest child is 8 years old. He has had symptoms of ADHD since about the age of four, and was actually diagnosed by the age of 5. He was on Ritalin for about 6 months, and it really didn't do a thing for him. They then put him on Adderall, which again didn't phase him at all. We have gotten very frustrated with the fact that nothing works. So I scheduled and appointment with Children's Mercy Hospital to have a total behavioral evaluation. The response that I recieved was that my son is the first child that they have seen in his age group to be so SEVERE in having ADHD, as well as they diagnosed him with having Asperger Syndrome. We have just recieved a new prescription today, he hasn't even had his first pill yet, and I am a bit leary. If anyone out there has a similar story, or any information that they would like to share with me it would be greatly appreciated! Thank You!

[This message has been edited by 26yearoldmomof5 (edited 03-28-2003).]

What is the new medicine? My son is 6 with ADHD and Asperger's (mild) and while his medicine works pretty well with his ADHD symptoms, there is some residual hyperactivity and over sensitivity (he gets weepy) due to the Asperger's. The two conditions share a lot of syptoms that are treatable in ADHD but not in Asperger's.

strattera

Hi. My 8 year old son also has ADHD/Aspergers/Tourettes disorder. We have tried stimulants as well, but changed to strattera about 6 weeks ago. He was not gaining any weight on the concerta and it made his tics worse so we decided to give the strattera a try. The only complaint that I have about this med is the loonnggggg time it took to show any results and we are still not seeing any improvement in his concentration. He is still very easily distracted. We are hoping this will get better in the next couple of weeks, if it doesn't I may talk to the doctor about doing a low dose of concerta in conjunction to help his focus. He is coming home from school now telling me "it's not good mamma, I can't focus" and tells me he doesn't want to go which I have not heard from him in well over a year when he was on the concerta/clonidine/risperdal regimen. I don't want him to lose too much in his self-esteem (which is pretty low already!) and we are also starting to see some regressive (baby talk) behavior from him as well which I'm pretty sure is the Asperger stuff. So there you have it, that's my strattera story to date. Good luck with yours.

I have been reading so much about Strattera but I still don't know if it is right for my boy. I have done some soul searching and LOADS of research and finally come to the conclusion that he is always going to be a challenge and now I need to basically pick up where the med is leaving off. As I said, the wellbutrin is doing well, no sleep or weight gain problems, no head aches etc. However, there are times of increased hyperactivity that I have concluded are due to two things, Asperger's and being 6. I have recently gotten some books on relationship building for children with Asperger's but I don't have them with me so I don't remember what they are called, but I will post again later. Also helpful has been a book called ADHD and Asperger's: reweaving the tapestry. The author kind of writes like a text book author but there's good info in the book.