This is a very SHORT list of what parents are saying these drugs have done to their children. It would take hundreds of posts to list them all. This is what is happening to our children.
michiganin
says:
I gave my 7-year-old Adderrall XR for the
first time yesterday. He was a little more focused and less
frustrated during the day, but he refused to eat dinner and was up
all night HALLUCINATING! "Mom! Mosquitos! Moths! Big moths!
Look at all of the flies! Turn on the light!" When I turned on
the light, he said, "Why do I see tiny black specks
everywhere?" Literally, this went on all night, even though I
tried to comfort him and coax him to sleep in my bed- to no avail!
He was experiencing frightening things all night. "Mom! I just
saw a door roll up on the floor and roll away! It had wheels!"
"Mom! Daddy is outside the door. I see his hands! But he
disappears when I open the door! He is playing tricks on me!"
When we first went to bed he was speaking negatively about himself:
"Everybody does everything better than me. I don't do anything
well. I should just kill myself. Nobody cares about me. Nobody likes
me. April is so boring! Everybody's Easter eggs are better than
mine. When is it going to be the day? I hate this night! I hate the
dog. We should put her in a shelter. I wish I was homeless. I hate
this life. I hate myself. I wish I was dead." THIS WAS VERY
SHOCKING TO HEAR!!! I have not seen this black side before! We will
certainly FLUSH the Adderall! Never again!
My son is just turned 18 and has been on Focalin for almost two years. I understand that it may seem like a miracle drug to many but BEWARE, it can be very dangerous. The problem occures when the drug is wearing off in the late afternoon. They become VERY depressed, angry and unreasonable to the point that they can become dangerous to themselves and others. They will often turn to illegal drugs to combat these emotional swings. They also begin to feel that drugs, either legal or illegal are the answer to all of social stresses they face. I do not know the answer yet but Focalin is not it
posted by Deann on 28 Apr 2010 at 4:19 pm
My son just turned 10 and has been taking Focalin since early February, about 3 months. This is the first ADHD medication he has been on. Things seemed good at first but in the past couple weeks I have noticed huge mood swings and lots of agitation. If he sets something on the table and it falls off, he will fly into a rage, kicking and screaming frantically because it fell. I am calling my doctor tomorrow but I am very concerned about continuing the use of focalin.
posted by Paul on 05 Oct 2010 at 4:21 pm
I use to take focalin but I stopped because it was making me feel depressed and I was acting weird like with your son Deann. My friends were saying I was different and I would have a loss of appetite. I suggest you stay away from this drug, and all other psychological drugs. The pharmaceutical industry is screwing the American public over with drugs for things that don't exist such as ADHD and ADD. They only want your money! Focalin XR side effects- beware!
posted by Miriam Whitehouse on 23 Jan 2006 at 12:32 pm
My 14 yr. old son, who has ADHD, was on Focalin XR for over 1 month. We recently had to stop it, because he developed muscle spasms, joint pain, had severe insomnia, anxiety, irritability, and worst of all, became severely depressed. We were about to consider anti-depressants when he told us that he suspeced the Focalin. Once he stopped taking it, all symptoms disappeared. Watch your child carefully!
posted by Matt on 15 Oct 2006 at 6:01 pm
My son has been prescribed just about every ADHD medicine on the market, including short-acting Focalin, only to have each of them stop working after a few months. One unfortunate result is that he is almost 10 years old and weights 52 pounds, you can see his ribs but he eats pretty well. He has been on Focalin XR for about a month -- and I am writing because I am really frightened. He is experiencing hallucinations such as people coming at him with swords and guns, and hearing people say, "Come here" and "We're going to kill you." This is constant. He is terrified and hasn't slept much all weekend. Is this a side effect of the drug or something else?
posted by Mom of Teen on 14 Feb 2007 at 4:15 pm
By the way, my daughter has been on ADHD meds since 3rd grade, last one was Concerta, which worked well except she constantly cleared her throat (tic) while on it. The Focalin did stop the throat clearing, but I'd rather have the throat clearing thing than have my daughter kill herself or someone else in the rages that Focalin has caused her to have. She has always been the most joyful loving child until the switch from Concerta to Focalin. We will try a lower dose of Concerta to try to avoid the throat thing coming back. She has always been put on freakishly high doses of meds by the so called expert doctor. Mothers, we have to listen to our gut instinct. I didn't listen to mine for tooooo long, and deeply regret it now. I have lost the loving closeness I always had with my girl. I can only pray we can get it back with counseling. I know my sweet girl is still in there somewhere. I still see her in the morning before she takes her meds. It's the nighttime that makes her crazy, so it must be when the meds are wearing off that kicks in the defiance and meanness. She is always sorry for it in the morning. :) I just wish I had realized it was the medication sooner.
posted by Rashael Shofner on 18 Feb 2007 at 7:34 pm
My 5 year old has been on Focalin XR since the beginning of the school year. It worked miracles for him in the beginning, but started to wear off more quickly than it should, so we increased his meds to 15 mg XR in the morning and 10 mg quick release at 2:30. He has recently started these crying fits, and saying he wants to kill himself and others. Has anyone else experienced these side effects with this drug? What other ADHD meds are out there. He definitely needs something. I'm just not sure this is it. Surely there is something out there that can help the ADHD without the crying and death threats.
posted by alicia on 23 Feb 2007 at 6:09 pm
I just started my 6 year old daughter on Focalin xr a week ago. She does great in the morning, but has lost her appetite. But when she comes home from school around 3:00 she is very hyper. It's as if the med. has stopped working. She is jumping on the cough, running around and climbing like crazy and at night she is very, very, very whinny and cries over everything! This is really worrying me and my husband. We have noticed this is happening every night and we don't know what to do about it. I think I am not going to give it to her over the weekend and see if her behavior at night stops. Does anyone know much about stopping the medication so abruptly. I feel as if I'm doing more harm to her than good. I feel so sorry for her at night. She just cries and cries.
posted by Melanie on 06 Mar 2007 at 7:04 am
My son is 10 years old and has been on Focalin XR 20 mg for about a year. Although his grades did improve initially, he has terrible night terrors! He also recently woke up having a severe panic attack and said that everything around him seemed "really loud" I was so scared that I immediately took him off the medication. Unfortunately, it didn't take long before he was bringing home notes that he wasn't able to focus and his grades were falling. I am speaking with his dr this week to see what our options are.
posted by monica hale on 31 Mar 2007 at 6:15 am
My daughter is being released from the hospital today from taking focalin xr 5mg for one day. She started hearing voices that were telling her to harm other people. Very scary!!! when you start talking about a lost sense of reality watch your child very carefully. This side effect is not as uncommon as the dr.s think. Make sure the school has a complete list of side effects.
My son has 9 yrs old, he has been taking Focalin XR for almost a year, lately he have been showing anger, he says that he doesn't know why he feels so angry, he can not control it and he can feel that way all day. I will want to know if someone has experience something like this before.
My 10 y/o son has been on adhd meds since he was 5. He started Focalin XR about a year ago. He has been 'hearing voices' in his head lately and been somewhat belligerant. I took him off the Focalin and he has no more voices and is in a great mood, although he definitely is adhd. Between the heart racing of 106bpm to 137bpm while on the meds, and the voices, etc. I am afraid to put him on anything else. We've tried them all. The school will have a fit if he's not on the meds because he is so very adhd. I understand their point but it's not worth it to have him calm and attentive only to suffer all these other symptoms. Can the public schools kick him out? What do I do with their endless calls about his behavior????
I have a 10 yr old son on Focalin who has recently been referred to a pediatric cardiologist due to irregular heartbeat. He still has a stress test to undergo before determining the cause. The cardiologist does believe that the Focalin could be a cause. My son is on a high doseage. 30mg in the AM and 30mg at noon. The ecocardiogram and chest x-ray came out normal.....but the EKG still shows the additional beat. He had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hrs Thurs. I am still awaiting the results from that testing. Still a little to early. We will have the stress test done on 9/17/07 and I will let you know after I get the results what my cardiologist says.
posted by Irene on 08 Dec 2007 at 2:31 pm
My 6 year old son was recently diagnosed with ADHD, and though we knew it for years without an official diagnosis, we took the last and final step of using medications to help with his inattentiveness, behavioral outbursts and other unpopular in-school behaviors. We've tried Concerta, Adderall, and today switched to Focalin. My son has had behavioral explosions before, but today was different. He told me he wanted to put a bullet in my throat, and he wanted me, my husband and my brother dead. He held his fist up to me and asked me if I wanted some of "this", and then said he's flush me like a dead fish. Today was the first day, and the last day for the Focalin. God bless all you parents out there who are dealing with this.....it's taking a toll on our entire family. Godspeed.
I have a 9 year old as well. He has been on 10mg of Focalin XR in AM and then takes 5mg 4-5 hrs later. When we first started Focalin in September, or should I say finally got the dosage correct, we have had a wonderful 6 months. Over the last month though, we have seen him get more defiant, have crying spells, fits of rage, and getting into trouble again at school. The doctor has since upped his dosage to 20mg in AM and 5mg at lunch. I tend to think this is a bit much of a dosage increase. Does anyone else have any opinion on this matter?
posted by Dinky on 27 Apr 2008 at 4:23 pm
My son who is 6 has been taking Focalin for about 4 months, he started with the 5mg tabs and 2 months ago it was increased to 10 and everything has been going fine, his teacher noted a 360 degree turn around in listening and attentiveness. Unfortunately just recently he has started seeing things and claiming bugs are crawling on him and inside of his clothing. It got to the point where he wouldn't get dressed. I called his neurologist immediately, and he stated without hesitation discontinue meds immediately.
posted by Jessica Dykes on 20 Sept 2008 at 9:20 pm
My 10 year old daughter has an ADHD diagnosis. She was on Strattera for three years but it made her fall asleep in school every day. We tried focalin 5 mg. twice a day. She has completely changed. The focus part has been very good, she is doing her work without so much fighting. The terrible part is her defiance and bizarre behaviors. She just got three days of in-shool suspension for refusing to get up off the classroom floor, using foul language and trying to bite the teacher when physically removed. We have noticed that the defiance and crying are very bad. I have a call into her pediatrician but haven't heard back yet. After reading some of these posts I am ready to wean her off of the meds. Help!
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