Hi—my son has been on Focalin (15mg) for 2 years now and combined with Intuniv (for focus) he does very, very well.  We tried Vyvanse but it did not work well for him so after 1 week we changed.  He has been on medication since he was 5; he is now 12.  We have used a lot over the years - Straterra, Adderall, Concerta.  The key is to keep at it until you find the right one for your son.  And as he grows, you may need to change as well.  I suggest you keep a very simple diary on his behavior as you try out the new medications and communicate frequently with your doctor.  My son’s doctor always starts with a low dosage and then we gradually increase after a fre days if he still has problems.  20 mg seems high to me for a 7 year old and may be contributing to the aggression but I am not a doctor. He may be like my son and still have a very low fight-or-flight threshold even with medication that provides stability—but it is manageable.  Good luck!

Every single person responds to each medication differently.  I’m not a dr. or pharmacist, but my experience has been that you definitely can’t gauge how one person will do on a medication based on others’ experiences.  I have several clients (as well as my son) who do better on certain manufacturers of a particular medication than they do on other.  For example, my son had horrible (really disturbing) emotional episodes when rebounding from AdderallXR, but did very well with Vyvanse—both meds have the same base ingredient, but diferent delivery systems.  I got moody on Ritalin LA, but was fine on Concerta—same active ingredient, different delivery systems for the medication.  One client comes to mind who does signifiancly better on a particular manufactuer’s generical Adderall than on anothers—so much so that she spend significant effort making sure she gets the right one each onth.  My understanding is that the delivery system and inert ingredients can affect the way medication is metabolized in some people more than others.

Just a few thoughts!  I hope it helps. 

It takes patience and a bit of trial for many of us, but hang in there!

Best of luck!

Lynne Edris, ACG
Life & ADD Coach
http://www.CoachingADDvantages.com

My son is 6 years old and been on meds since age 4.  He takes Clonodine for hyperactivity and Vyvanse for impulse control.  They work for my son.  Clonodine takes about 30 minutes to get in his system and stays for about 5 hours, then I can do another pill, max 3 per day.  Vyvanse 20 mg is only once a day.  The only two side effect he has had with Vyvanse is lack of hunger (so on the weekends we go without it go increase food intake) and when we went up to 40 mg he had some twitches with his jaw.  Clonodine (lowest dosage) can make him sleepy.  If I just keep him stimulated he is ok.  We are about to try the extended release Clonodine that can last up to 12 hrs but we got to fight the battle of fighting a pill.  No many people mention Clonodine (guess not a regular med for people) but with my son’s age they did not want to try alot of the other meds.  Hope that helps and gives you a few more options. You can do it!

How did it go at the doctors? Did you get something to try? My son has ADHD/ODD he is 11 now and was diagnosed at age 5. We tried Adderall, Biphentin, Concerta, Strattera, back to Concerta which should be the name brand and not the generic one since it does work differently. We are now using Vyvanse 60mg and it seems to be doing the trick. The side effects are NO appetite so we have Sundays off (he goes to a reading tutor on Saturday morning so we have take it on Saturdays) and not tired at bedtime so we use 5mg of Melaonin every school night. Which does the trick for him. However, just to let you know that the first week or so he does pull a couple of all nighters. \Good luck and keep trying you will find one that works.