starting Tenex tomorrow...I'm nervous

[lmh2402]

DS has anxiety. long, long we've struggled. I am nearly certain we've paid almost every specialist in the tristate area to try and "dx" our son.

the long and short is, he's anxious. crazy, crazy anxious and presents with symptoms that also seem OCD-ish and also seem ADHD-ish and also seem spectrum-y-ish...but all the experts currently agree that they think it's all driven by underlying anxiety. a lot of it. and that if we try to treat the anxiety, we should see improvement in the other areas as well.

the first drug we will be trying (hopefully the last) is Tenex.

we start tomorrow with just .5mg (half a pill) once a day

the doctor has told me that we should see some effects within four days. and that it could actually make him grumpier (fab!) and also sleepy.

anyone else done Tenex alone for a kid around 6yrs old? if so, did you see success? where they/are they taking for anxiety?

thanks so much

[o_mom]

We used it for awhile with DS3 at 5-6 years old, but we would see rebound hypertension if we missed a dose and sleepiness between doses as the levels peaked. We switched to Intuniv which is the extended release form and is now a generic. Much less rebound and sleepiness, although we still see some because of interactions with his other medications.

[ArizonaGirl]

We tried Tenex and the longer acting Intuniv and didn't have much luck. However DS was much younger when we did the Tenex (4) and I didn't notice much of a difference with either one...

Our children do sound similar based on past posts I've read; however, my DS does carry the Autism and ADHD diagnoses.

A have pretty much been on everything, well almost, Risperidal, Tenex, Intuniv, Ritalin, Adderall, Vyvanse, Prozac.

Honesty I feel like our poor kid has tried everything...

We have had much luck period...yet.

Good luck, I know Dr like to start with Tenex because it has been around so long.

[lmh2402]

thanks, guys

o mom, how did you know your DS was having rebound hypertension issues?

[StantonHyde]

We put DS on Zoloft around that age or a little older. It has been fantastic. 3 years later we added Concerta due to ADD. So far it is all working well. The challenge is going to be puberty!! DS is aost 13. A good friend's DD has such horrible anxiety and OCD that she is on risperidol and they are going to have to switch to a complicated regimen because it isn't working anymore. She is 11.

[annex]

DS started Tenex .5mg at 6 (and we switched to Intuniv at 7.) He's autistic, though, so we're using it more to lower impulsivity/irritability. His more anxious/OCD/perseverative behaviors don't seem to be affected by it. Figuring out doses and timing has been tricky -if we dose him at night, he wakes up before dawn and is grumpy from lack of sleep. Now we dose him in the am, he is sleepy between 1:30pm-2:30pm each day but gets a good night's sleep. Still not ideal but I think overall it does help him so we've stuck with it (he's 7 1/2 now.)

We did one trial of Prozac for anxiety and it was a huge disaster - basically activated every worst aggressive impulsive behavior he's ever had. So we're just coping as best we can with the OCD/anxious behaviors as they tend not to be as harmful to his functioning.

[LBW]

We tried Intuniv with DS2 when he was 6, and after an initial short period (2-3 weeks) of positive results, we had some pretty bad negative results. He was exhausted, depressed, and just "flat" on it. Honestly, it was a little frightening. Since then, we tried Zoloft (sertraline) with great results. It takes the edge off his anxiety.

[jse107]

We put DS on Zoloft around that age or a little older. It has been fantastic. 3 years later we added Concerta due to ADD. So far it is all working well. The challenge is going to be puberty!!

Ditto to exactly this. Started Zoloft at 9, added Concerta this past year. No side effects from either and DS is SO SO much better (and more pleasant).

[lmh2402]

thanks, guys. for those of you who had/have DC on zoloft at around age 6, did your child's anxiety manifest outwardly in an aggressive way? we saw our psychologist today, who referred us to the psychiatrist we saw yesterday. I was asking her about the use of Tenex just to get her thoughts as an additive source of info - she said that she felt that zoloft and other SSRIs were generally not as effective with the sort of outwardly "aggressive" (defiant/nasty/excessively grumpy) manifestation of anxiety.

anyway, we did start today and I'm sure I'm over analyzing and over-looking for "changes," but he did seem a little different today. a little more subdued. he at one point said he felt weird but couldn't explain it. and tonight he fell asleep like literally in less then two minutes. i wasn't even out of his room yet and he was literally unconscious.

[o_mom]

thanks, guys

o mom, how did you know your DS was having rebound hypertension issues?

The school nurse was checking his BP a few times a week at random times. Mainly they were concerned about being too low, but we found it going high at certain times which we traced to being at the end of the day when his morning dose was wearing off. Once we were aware of it, we watched it closer (I had a friend who was a nurse help at home).