Both of my sons (age 9 & 7) began taking Adderall about a year ago. They switched to Adderall XR over this past summer. The entire time they were on either drug, my older son has been incredibly moody, ,and my younger son has developed tics. I think it's the tics that bothers me more, simply because other people can see them I guess. He switches from one thing to another. He will bite the skin around his fingernails until they bleed. He does this for a few weeks, then he goes to pinching his penis until it develops a big blister. Then he goes to picking his nose until it gets raw & bleeds. After he's done that for a few weeks, he'll go back to his fingernails or something else. Is there any behavior modification that we can do to help this, or is this maybe a sign that his dosage is too high? Same question with my older son's mood swings. Is this a sign that we should switch medications or lower the dose? Or is there some technique I teach him to help him realize what's happening and maybe help him to stop himself?

Thanks

Rebecca

About the moodiness on Adderall: This can be a side effect that has nothing to do with dosage being to high. When my son was on a very low dosage of Adderall XR I also noticed the moodiness. The doctor told me that it can be a side effect of the Adderall. He told me the best way to find out if Adderall causes the moodiness is to see, if the moodiness is also present, after the medication wears off. Well my son had the moodiness as soon as he got up in the morning, before taking his Adderall. So that should tell me, it's not the Adderall that made him moody.

Wrong! Ever since I completely stopped giving my son Adderall, the moodiness has gone completely away. The doctor told us that many children have great success on Lexapro for their moodiness (it's an Anti-Depressant). I decided that my son was already on way too many meds due to side effects of Adderall (trouble sleeping, not eating) and I did not feel it was right to add yet another medication.

So my guess is that Adderall causes this mooodiness in your son, especially since he displays this since he started to take Adderall.

Originally posted by Palms:
About the moodiness on Adderall: This can be a side effect that has nothing to do with dosage being to high. When my son was on a very low dosage of Adderall XR I also noticed the moodiness. The doctor told me that it can be a side effect of the Adderall. He told me the best way to find out if Adderall causes the moodiness is to see, if the moodiness is also present, after the medication wears off. Well my son had the moodiness as soon as he got up in the morning, before taking his Adderall. So that should tell me, it's not the Adderall that made him moody.

Wrong! Ever since I completely stopped giving my son Adderall, the moodiness has gone completely away. The doctor told us that many children have great success on Lexapro for their moodiness...


You have discovered first-hand how doctors never take into account any withdrawal, dependancy or rebound effects of drugs. When the drug leaves the system, they think that's that but everybody knows addictive type drugs have residual effects on the brain, but either doctors don't know this(I doubt it) or simply don't want us to know it so they can prescribe other drugs to take care of those withdrawal type effects(such as the Lexapro), which have their own set of health risks. Glad to hear you said enough already...

Rebecca, if you look up symptoms of amphetamine use, self-mutilation and mood swings are among the list of effects...although it is believed this is from "abuse" of the drugs only. It's clear your son is experiencing this without abusing the drugs, so if you do the math you can realize what we are being told by the psychiatric community and drug co's about these "medications" is not entirely accurate.

[This message has been edited by Jennita (edited 09-14-2003).]