Guanfacine (Intuniv?)

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Forum -> Parenting our children -> Our Challenging Children (gifted, ADHD, sensitive, defiant)

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amother

Thu, Oct 31 2013, 4:51 pm

Anybody ever use it either for themselves or their child?

Did it help? Side effects? Anything else you could tell me.

Thanks.

amother

Thu, Oct 31 2013, 6:13 pm

My daughter took it for ADD. She's not hyper but very scatterbrained and distracted. I had a bad experience. My daughter developed facial tics and twitches. She was very weepy when it wore off...
she's now on dexedrine and is doing great bh!

You can't make a decision based on someone else's experience. Ever body is different and you might need some trial and error. My daughter was on adderall, vyvanse, concerta and intuniv till we found her current one to be her fix. I know it's hard we went thru six months of hell till we finally succeeded. Also, some people go to neurologists for ADD. I think they have very little knowledge in this area. This belongs to a competent child psychiatrist. Talking from experience.

amother

Thu, Oct 31 2013, 6:19 pm

OP here-
Thank you so much for your response.

We are seeing a psychiatrist who I don't like but we can't afford to go to another one. We tried focalin which helped but caused terrible insomnia so now we are trying something else. It is also for ADD but there is also some anxiety issues.

imasinger

Thu, Oct 31 2013, 7:47 pm

I've got 3 kids who take it, and the house is a much happier place since they started.

Mama Bear

Thu, Oct 31 2013, 10:23 pm

My son has severe adhd & autism. This is the fourth medication we're trying. We tried Clonidine - made him sleep all day. Ritalin - made him aggresive. Risperdal - mde him a happy boy but did nothing for the hyperactivity. We started Intuniv last week. The first 3 days we saw no change. the next 3 days he was very, very tired and subdued. Now we've reached a strange plateau whre he's more attentive in school, has a longer attention span, but for some reason by 4 pm it wears off & he's extremely hyper, runny/jumpy/sensory all evening. So I'm confused and dont know whats going on with him. Its possible that since it's extended release and we crush it as he doesnt swallow pills, it's not effective. I might ask the dr to switch to Tenex and give it twice a day.

It causes drowsiness at first but then can really help with attentiveness as it slows the person down and they focus better.

hatzlocha!

perquacky

Thu, Oct 31 2013, 10:45 pm

We're in the process of weaning our son off of Rispedol and on to Intuniv. He's currently taking both, but we're going to cut out Rispedol because I'm not happy with the amount of weight he's gained.

Has anyone seen excessive weight gain when their child is on Intuniv? I was told it's a possible side effect, but not as likely as with Rispedol.

imasinger

Thu, Oct 31 2013, 10:47 pm

Nope. My kids didn't gain any weight on it at all.

Mama Bear

Thu, Oct 31 2013, 11:44 pm

We'll IYh wean our son off risperdal too if he responds well to intuniv.

FranticFrummie

Sun, Nov 03 2013, 3:52 am

I went on Tenex for a while, about 10 days I think. (they're related meds) It was all I could handle. I already take a med that gives my dry mouth, but this was SO bad that my teeth were actually wobbling loose in my gums, no matter how much water I drank. I was so scared that my teeth would fall out, that I had to stop.

Keep in mind though, I'm one of those "lucky" ones who will get every bad side effect in the book, and I'm very sensitive to even really low doses of things.

amother

Sun, Nov 03 2013, 4:36 am

Everyone is different, but I would like to share our experience. Our teen child has not had good experience with any meds. We tried guanfacine after trying almost everything (18 different medications over the years). For him (and us) it was awful. He acted very strange and had suicidal thoughts. We did not realize the connection right away, but as soon as we stopped it, the behaviors and thoughts subsided.
Good luck! and hugs! Hug

animeme

Mon, Nov 04 2013, 9:36 pm

Mama Bear, we had a doctor who told us to put ds on Intuniv but crush it because he couldn't swallow. I wish I could get her disbarred. It says straight-out on the packaging: Do not crush.

You cannot crush an extended release tablet, because it messes with the delivery levels. Your son may be getting way too much at some times of the day, and way too little at others. Ds had hours when he was great, hours when he was more of a horror than usual, and hours when he was basically asleep. Spacing out Tenex is a much better idea, though it didn't work for my kid. Also, I don't know if they still have this, but years ago there was a patch for another med in this category. You can ask about that.

In the end, we brought in a speech therapist who taught him to swallow pills. It took just under half a year, and was totally worth the out-of-pocket pay. You have to look hard, but there are speech therapists who know how to teach very young kids to do this for medical reasons.

Intuniv has been very very useful for us, and has helped where many other things have failed. We were able to take ds off Abilify (we also added NAC, which you can open), and he is more regulated. It doesn't help much with activity levels, but is great for regulation and mood. FYI, for the first few weeks of adding it and increasing doses, he was very tired.

Mama Bear

Mon, Nov 04 2013, 10:51 pm

yes, I am scheduled to speak to th dr tomorrow & ask him about the crushing situation. My son is too stubborn to be taught to swallow meds, he is so scared of meds he pushes way a cup with a liquid med in it. I'll hve to figure something out.

MommyZ

Mon, Nov 04 2013, 11:20 pm

My son takes Intuniv for severe ADHD. It helps a lot. He used to take it in a spoon of applesauce. Now he swallows it plain.

Mama Bear

Mon, Nov 04 2013, 11:44 pm

Mendy spits it out no matter what I hide it in. he loves ice cream. he'll take the ice cream but spit out the pill!

simchatomid

Tue, Nov 05 2013, 6:00 am

I don't know about intuniv specifically but I just wanted to say that the whole "do not crush" on the packaging is not so simple. I'm a nurse in a psychiatric hospital and I work on pediatric units. Some xr (extended release) capsules/coated pills CAN be crushed or opened with minimal change in body absorption rate (an example is adderall xr). The extended release effect in these medications has to do with their actual makeup as well as the capsule around them. I do not believe all xr medications are similar in this respect but please don't write off good psychiatrists because they recommend to do this.

And I agree with the above poster- please always confer with psychiatrists who have much more experience than neurologists in this field.

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