Daytrana for ADHD

[ms.yt]

Our soon to be adopted daughter has pretty severe ADHD and has been on Focalin XR 40 mg with a 20 mg Ritalin booster in the afternoon. The Focalin works great, but the Ritalin has never seemed to do very much. So yesterday, after telling her doctor again that the Ritalin doesn't do much and all her behavioral issues occur in the evenings after her Focalin has completely worn off, she decided to put her on the Daytrana patch in place of both the Focalin and Ritalin.

She tried her first patch today, and it's been a nightmare! She is still completely hyper and manic, has broken things and had several crying spells already, and it's only 12:44! Right now I've sent her to her room, but she's running around singing at the top of her lungs. I've got a call in to her doctor, but I was wondering if anybody has had similar experiences with this. Does it take a few days to build up or should it be working by now if it's going to?

 

[Liberty Belle]

My son uses the patch.

Is this the behavior you see without any medication? What's the dosage? Did you completely clean and dry the area where you put the patch? Where did you put the patch?

Oh - it should work within two hours. No build up is needed. It takes about two hours to get into her system (completely) and two hours to leave.

 

[Liberty Belle]

My son doesn't use the patch (or any medication) during the summer or weekends, but has to have one for school. He has to have a bath every night (no exceptions) and if he's under a lot of covers or the house is hot, the patch area has to be additionally cleaned and dried in the morning. If not, it will seem like he doesn't have the patch on at all (behavior-wise).

What we do is he has a bath (and I usually scrub his hip to make sure it's extra clean, because I can't trust him to do a good enough job) at night. He has to be at school at 7:30, so one of us will wake up at 5:00 and put the patch on him so it's working by the time he gets to school. They really aren't supposed to wear it more than 9 hours, so he has to take it off himself at school (though he often forgets).

 

[ms.yt]

My son uses the patch.

Is this the behavior you see without any medication? What's the dosage? Did you completely clean and dry the area where you put the patch? Where did you put the patch?

Oh - it should work within two hours. No build up is needed. It takes about two hours to get into her system (completely) and two hours to leave.

Pretty much it's the non medicated behavior. We've only had her since March, and we only see her nonmedicated first thing in the morning before we giver her the Focalin, which starts working pretty quick. At night, everything's starting to wear off, so she's getting hyper, but not this bad. She's also diagnosed as having ODD, and evenings when her medicine is wearing off is when we've seen some defiant behavior in the past.

Her doctor yesterday kept telling me to put it on her "butt cheek," so I put it on her upper hip area. I didn't clean and dry it first, but she wasn't dirty or anything. I put it on her at 7:30 this morning, and so far, nothing.

Still haven't heard back from the doctor either.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Pretty much it's the non medicated behavior. We've only had her since March, and we only see her nonmedicated first thing in the morning before we giver her the Focalin, which starts working pretty quick. At night, everything's starting to wear off, so she's getting hyper, but not this bad. She's also diagnosed as having ODD, and evenings when her medicine is wearing off is when we've seen some defiant behavior in the past.

Her doctor yesterday kept telling me to put it on her "butt cheek," so I put it on her upper hip area. I didn't clean and dry it first, but she wasn't dirty or anything. I put it on her at 7:30 this morning, and so far, nothing.

Still haven't heard back from the doctor either.

We have found that it's imperative that you clean her off before applying the patch. Like I said, even a bath right before bed is sometimes not sufficient, so even if you don't feel she's dirty, it really makes a HUGE difference if no body oils or anything are on the site of the patch.

Upper hip is where we put our son's.

 

[ms.yt]

We have found that it's imperative that you clean her off before applying the patch. Like I said, even a bath right before bed is sometimes not sufficient, so even if you don't feel she's dirty, it really makes a HUGE difference if no body oils or anything are on the site of the patch.

Upper hip is where we put our son's.

It could make that much of a difference?

 

[Liberty Belle]

It could make that much of a difference?

Yep. We wouldn't have thought so, but it really does.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

If that is the non-medicated behavior, either dosage may not be right or daytrana just doesn't work for that patient (or user error).

Daytrana worked for my daughter, but if anything we learned is that some meds work on some patients, but not on others. It worked Very well for her and was our preferred medication.

You can try the suggestions--but we never had to do anything too specific and it worked fine.

We also alternated hips each day--I think that is part of the instructions.

I would not rule out that maybe it just isn't the right medication.

 

[ms.yt]

The doctor's office finally called back. They are switching her back to the Focalin XR with a Ritalin booster. Although I've tried to read as much as I can, this is all new to me.

We think the Focalin works great, but we just thought she needed something in the afternoon for a booster that worked better than the Ritalin. Does anybody have any experience with something other than Ritalin being prescribed with Focalin?

 

[The_Alice]

Actually I think they are going to stop the manufacture of the Daytrana patch, at least that is what we were told by our Pediatrician and the Pharmacy. So we are having to train our ASD kiddo to swallow a pill. No, it's not going well, lol.

The Daytrana patch worked a little TOO well for my son, it made him rather withdrawn and moody. What we really needed it to do was simply aid his attention span. But, it also left angry welts where the patch was on his skin after awhile.

Glad to hear they are pulling your daughter off of it.