Vyvanse for extreme hyperactivity and impulsiveness

Mama Bear

Mon, May 13 2013, 3:14 pm

My 4.9 yr old son is very hyper, impulsive, and sensory. Risperdal has helped him calm down somewhat, but now his psych is thinking of adding vyvanse. I'm a little way and was wondering if anyone out there had a child that was pretty hyper and the vyvanse helped? any side effects to look out for?

thanks.

amother

Mon, May 13 2013, 5:56 pm

I know this doesn't answer your question but ...my son was put on vyvanse for a.d.d. (not a hyper kid-just has difficulty with attention and concentration). The vyvanse caused him great difficulty with sleeping, eating and also affected his vision. We switched from vyvance to concerta and that has been helpful

amother

Mon, May 13 2013, 6:34 pm

My 17 year old son haas been on vyvanse for 3 yrs now. It has been a lifesaver b"h. He doesn't sleep as well and he has less of an appetite but so worth it.

amother

Mon, May 13 2013, 7:07 pm

My daughter was on it and we saw a MAJOR turnaround. Her grades shot up and.she was superfocused. The downside is lack of apetite, ocd tendencies and tics. Also, when the med wears off some kids tend to get irritable. It lasts about 6-10 hours depending on individual. If yoi give the instant release earlu enough in day iy shouldn't affect sleep. But I would suggest a long acting.if there is, and that should eliminate need to give a top off due to crankiness associated with withdrawl.... You can pm me for more info, I've researched alot...

Mama Bear

Mon, May 13 2013, 8:26 pm

He's taking risperdal so that could help with the moodiness, but I do not want/need him to be aggressive, cranky, moody etc.... I guess I'll give it shot 2-3 days and see if the combo of risperdal+vyvanse work for him. the ritalin made him very upset and aggressive.

animeme

Fri, May 17 2013, 5:55 pm

Just seeing this. When my ds was on Vyvanse, his teachers loved what it did for his behavior in terms of focusing in class. We were combining it with Abilify, and that was fine. BUT:

A) He could not sleep. Now we give melatonin, as we did then, but on Vyvanse he needed to add an actual medication (clonidine) just to get him to sleep. B) It over-focused him on the things he's already obsessive about. And if you prevented him access to those things, he got violent. He was on it for just a week, and over the weekend involved, he decided he wanted the access code for our operating system (his obsession is computers). We told him we threw it out two years before, and he still took apart every file/box etc. in the house looking for it.

It is not unusual for stimulants to over-focus spectrum kids. Try it, by all means, but be on the lookout for weird behavior. The cool thing is, you'll know quickly, and if you stop it, it's just gone; no residuals. Hatzlachah.