difficult child 3 tried Strattera in December last year. We were to have him on it on a low dose (beginning level) and then after a week, increase it. During that time he was to stay on his other stimulant and then we would wean him off it.
We observed an increase in "verbal diarrhoea" and aggression. He was also more emotional, would get rude, resentful and aggressive. To him, everything was bad and we were all out to get him. He became increasingly upset. On about the third night we were at daughter in law's parents' place for a family evening. difficult child 3 was finding it confronting being around other people even though it was informal and family. He started being very rude (uncharacteristically) and when I sent him from the room I felt it would be good if I went with him; I wasn't sure what he would do. He was agitated, pacing the floor, screaming abuse at me, swearing loudly and horribly, insisting I was being monstrously unfair. He was hysterical, totally out of control.
Ok, initially I had been trying to handle him as normla and use logic, commonsense and finally mildshock tactics to get him b=to behave. None of it worked. I should have realised then that he was out of control, but I kept trying to make him control himself - and he just couldn't. ONce I realised that this was an out of control situation I backed right off. I finally got difficult child 3 to understand that the topic was dropped until next morning. husband & I left as soon as we could, daughter in law's family either didn't notice a lot or they were VERY polite about it (or both).
All the way home difficult child 3 was arguing loudly with us, insisting we continue the verbal dispute then and there in the car. We refused and he accused us of copping out. So husband & I (by now acting like you would around 40 Kg of unstable sweaty gelignite) promised difficult child 3 that we would ourselves raise the topic of our "unfairness" the next morning. we also managed to get through to him that we were not wanting to argue because we were increasingly feeling that he was having an adverse reaction to his medications (the Strattera).
Once we got home and finally got him into bed (he kept on arguing and frankly, much of what he was verbally spewing out was free association stuff, not making a lot of sense) I rang the hospital and asked what we should have done. Turned out they said we should have brought him in for an urgent psychiatric review. He's NEVER needed to see a psychiatrist! But the Strattera had done this to him, in three short days. (Actually, they felt like three very LONG days...)
By next morning difficult child 3 was more in control and very contrite. He still felt (from the memories of the strength of his emotions) that he had been justified, but he was too hazy on why he had felt so angry, what had happened to make him angry. Because what he remembered, just didn't seem (in the cold light of day) to explain the depth of his rage at me. He actually didn't want to talk about it, he said he would no longer hold us to the promise we made to talk about it. However, we said that WE wanted to talk about it and because we had made a promise, we would honour it even if he said he didn't want it. By this time he was really squirming. But we persisted - and also told him of our discussion after he'd gone to bed, and our decision.
We made the executive decision to immediately discontinue the Strattera. The hospital advised us that we could do this because he'd only been on it for three days. We didn't take him in - we felt it would cause more trouble than it would save us, a good night's sleep would be better for him and if there were still problems in the morning, THEN we would take him.
It took another four or five days for it to boil out of his system but the improvement was still in a positive direction. We eased off the pressure on him to behave because we recognised that he just couldn't control himself, and pressure made him lose it faster.
Mind you, now he's back on a more even keep, it's back to our usual expectatons for him. Still not the average, but it's what we recognise he can handle.
When we finally got back to the pediatrician about it - he reminded us that WE had wanted to try Strattera (as suggested by a new specialist in difficult child 3's team). He also reminded us that he didn't expect much good from trying it.
But now we know. As for difficult child 3 - he remembers the experience with a shudder, it was VERY negative for him. I think he was horrified at just how much control he could lose, due to a medication reaction. The thought of being so much at the mercy of pharmacology is still a bit horrifying for him, I tihnk.
NOw, the medication is available because for some people, it helps. So I'm not saying, "Don't ever try it."
What I'm saying - if you are observing issues like we did, please consider that a medication reaction can explain this, and if you continue with it and increase the dose as you're supposed to - it will not help.
For some kids, some medications just don't work. But generally other medications do.
I hope this info helps.
Marg