The following information is NOT intended to endorse drugs or recommend therapy. While these reviews might be helpful, they are not a substitute for the expertise, skill, knowledge and judgement of healthcare practitioners in patient care.
Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: My daughter (6 yrs old) began on Focalin (10 MG) a month ago. We noticed she suffered from no ill side effects; rather she became more "in tune" with others feelings and emotions, slept even more soundly at night, and did not have a loss of appetite. Unfortunately, it did not stay in her system long enough to get her through school and homework so her Doctor adjusted her dose (20 MG). Now she is loving it! For the first time, she is receiving high marks on her behavior at school, is able to communicate better with her friends, and (in her words) "stay focused and in control". The beauty of this, it leaves her system after about 10 hrs (she takes it at 7 am) and we are able to practice behavior modification procedures at home with her.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: My 9 yr old son who has ADHD and ODD has been on Focalin XR for roughly 5 months now after going through 3 other different medicines for his ADHD that produced a lot of side effects. He dropped down to 42 lbs. VERY SCARY, and he would refuse to eat, period. He also takes 1 mg of Risperdal at night.
He has a very high tolerance and is given 40 mg of Focalin XR daily. This is the only drug I have found that does not affect his appetite. He eats non stop when he gets home from school until he goes to bed at night. It has calmed him down but it seems to wear off after 6 hours. Other than that, this medication is GREAT and I will continue to give it to my son.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: My 7 year old son has been taking Focalin for a few months now. At first all was great. Now there is a great deal of explosive behavior. We have made an appointment with a counselor to begin some 1 on 1 and family counseling.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Auditory Processing Disorder: I'm a 16 year old female and, I started taking Focalin three days ago, only 2.5. I take it at 7:15 am I notice when it wears of about three hours later. I don't really have trouble falling asleep but I do kind of have trouble staying asleep. All day I have a sore throat and a runny nose, even once I've already felt it wear off. When I stand up I get dizzy and have to stop and hold on to something to keep from falling. I've also experienced high blood pressure from it and headaches that make my eyes water. When I look at a computer or T.V my eyes feel like I'm about to fall asleep but I can't close them except to blink.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: This medication has been a God send in some ways. I am an adult executive that suffers from ADD/ADHD and I use the XR version of this on an as needed basis, usually when I have lots of mundane paper work to get through that would never otherwise get done due to my lack of ability to naturally focus on tasks like that.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: My 6 year old grandson has been on Focalin for 2 months. We noticed an immediate behavior change in that he has so much more focused in school, less outbursts and getting daily "Perfect Day" behavior charts. He is so much happier now and although we are still watching, we haven't seen any side effects.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: My 8 year old son has been on this medicine for 1 year. At first it was great, it helped with his self control, focus, etc. Now he is having side effects such as, chest pain, aggressiveness, irritability and tics.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: My 7 year old who has had epilepsy since age 1 was diagnosed with ADHD about a year ago. We recently started him on Focalin XR as his first form of treatment. A little afraid of the side effects because he has had severe side effects in the past from various seizure medicines, but once we found the right seizure medicine for him he's been seizure free. Our next task was of finding an ADHD medicine that would work well with the seizure medicine -this was a bit frightening. He's been on Focalin for about a month and it really is a wonder drug. I have a goal in life to keep my kids off drugs, but I've accepted that some medicines are needed in children. This stuff is a blessing to my family and most importantly to my son.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: At first it was extremely helpful but after the first year or so of extended use, the effects begin to diminish. Not dramatically but enough to be noticed.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: I started taking this medication 1 month ago and have had absolutely no ill effects from it. My first worry was not being able to sleep once I heard the word "stimulant". Not an early riser I set my alarm clock to go off at 6AM just to take the pill! Now I am taking it much later and have absolutely no ill effects. Seem to have more energy, sleep better and starting to get some things accomplished instead of dabbling in two or three different things.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: My daughter (6 years old) has been on Focalin for 30 days now, to control her ADHD. This is our wonder drug. Gives her the control she needs, without making her have ups and downs. She hasn't experienced any problems with sleep, and we can see the medicine leave her after about 6 hours.
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Focalin (dexmethylphenidate) for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: I just started taking Focalin, 5mg. the long acting type a week ago for ADHD. My doctor assures me that the drug should be out of my system within 6-7 hours if that and I should have no problem falling asleep. I take th medication at 7:30 in the morning and don't try to fall asleep until 11pm that night but to no avail I can't sleep. This is definately scaring me. I feel I'm developing insomina...maybe I should discontinue use even though it helps with my ADHD.
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lizzieg4 said: 
