Listen in as Dr. Byrne discusses the non-stimulant medication, Straterra, used in the treatment of ADHD.
Hi this is dr. jenny fern i’m a psychiatrist at cognitive psychiatry of chapel hill and today i wanted to take a few minutes and talk to you about a medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the reason i wanted to talk about this medication is it is a non stimulant probably you’ve heard of things like ritalin or adderall these are stimulant
Medications these are what get a lot of media press we hear a lot of things about them good and bad but a lot of people don’t know that there are other non stimulant treatment options for adhd so today i want to talk to you about a medication the brand name is strattera and the generic name is adam oxy teen although there is no generic yet because strattera is
Still a patented medication so right now you would be getting strattera so what is this medication strattera works on norepinephrine which is a chemical in the brain stimulants also work with norepinephrine but they have a dopamine component so it’s a little bit of a different mechanism strattera is different in that you take it every day and like antidepressants
It kind of takes a while for it to build up in your system so the way i normally recommend that people start this medication is with a lower dose and then they kind of build up over about a month time and they actually have some titration packs which make this easy so this is an example of a titration pack for children that starts at 10 milligram dose and goes up
To 40 milligram dose and this is an example of a titration pack for adults that starts at 25 milligrams and goes up to 80 milligrams the dose range on the medication the lowest pill is capsule the lowest capsules ten milligrams and the highest is 100 i would say most adults are typically on something between 40 and 80 and for children it really varies quite a bit
So this medication like i said is a non stimulant treatment for adhd why is that a good thing well stimulants can have a lot of problems they can be habit-forming meaning it’s hard to stop taking them they can have increased anxiety or jitteriness they can make it hard to sleep at night they can give you trouble with your appetite and cause weight loss and this
Is sometimes an issue more in kids than in adults also if you’ve had a history of tics stimulants can sometimes make that worse so you know there’s kind of a lot of pros and cons about stimulants but strattera tends not to have these kind of problems so doesn’t have the problems with loss of appetite or insomnia it doesn’t cause tics doesn’t tend to cause anxiety
In fact one of the things i really like about strattera is that it helps treat anxiety so it is fda approved for treatment of adhd in adults and children but i also use it for people who have adhd plus anxiety and those two conditions often go together it’s pretty common that you see them together so for my patients who are really struggling with both anxiety and
Adhd this medication can be a really great choice what are some of the downsides of strattera every medicine can have downsides the most common side effect is upset stomach so gi problems you know like nausea heartburn upset stomach even abdominal pain obviously if you have any of these symptoms you let your doctor know right away and some people just can’t take
It because of those side effects more uncommon lee i’ve seen side effects with problems urinating in men in particular i’ve seen that a couple of times there is a warning on the medication for younger children about suicidal ideation saying that if there’s any suicidal ideation call your doctor right away this morning is not there for adults but it is there for
Children so again you know one of the downsides is you take it every day it’s not as needed it’s not like you can just take it and get the benefit just from taking it one time but i think it can be a great treatment option it’s like i said especially if somebody has adhd and anxiety or they’ve taken stimulants and they have a lot of side effects or if they’ve had
A history of substance abuse problems so for me if i have someone who’s had a history of some substance abuse problems and they have adhd i might actually start with straight arrow rather than a stimulant so hopefully this medication the generic will be available i’m not sure exactly one maybe in a couple of years but in the meantime there are programs if you can’t
Afford the medication sometimes doctors can give you samples or there is a patient assistance program if you can’t afford it so i hope this has been helpful if you have any more questions please just contact us at the information below thank you
Transcribed from video
Strattera By Jennie Byrne MD PhD
