Clonodine / Tic Syndrome

Hi R.,

I have a son who is on Clonodine and a few other meds. He has been on them since August 07. It seems he has developed tics since being on these meds. Just my 2 cents.

C.

Years ago, my son was on this for the same thing. It worked great, but made him really tired. It is key to have good communication with your son and his doctor and regular monitoring for him, so adjustments can be made. Really important not to abruptly stop on your own if you don't think it is helping. May need to do gradually. It may take a few weeks to build a therapeutic level in his system. It sometimes takes a bit to find the right dosage specifically for him. Everyone reacts differently to medications, watch out for side effects and how the meds affect the quality of his life. If he's too tired to participate in things, long term, that is not a good thing. I will say that after about 16, the tics really calmed down a lot. My son, along with his doctor decided that he wanted to go off the meds, to see how things would be. And to be honest, it was okay. They were not near as bad as years earlier. Apparently, hormones have a big effect on the tics. We tried alot of different meds prior to finding the clonodine. They would work for a while, then he would build up a tolerence to them. I would hope by now, they would have developed something better than the clonodine that doesn't make the kids so sleepy. Good luck. Hope it helps. It's really hard on the kids socially when they have tics. I got my son involved in martial arts, and it really helped him a lot with the self esteem. It's hard when kids are set apart as being different. Hang in there. If this medication or the dr. isn't a good fit for your son, keep looking. But probably it will work out great. Your son will be able to relax a lot better if his tics are calmed down. It will help him a lot. God Bless.

I have not had to take this drug but I am going to ask are you sure it is tic syndrome? My son that is nine recently was diagnosed with PANDAS Pediatric autoamune neurological disorder. He had a series of issues with strep I mean a lot and to a point were he could no longer fight off this and he started with bleeding in his urnine then when anothe episode came on he had a tic in his face that was going on and his eyesight was being effected by this I was going nuts I went to doctor Regher and ENT at Wichita Cinic and he diagnosed him after 7 episodes and almost 8 months later we did surgery right away because the next was his heart that it would of attcked. I know I am off the beat but I know that it was mentioned that kids are missed diagnosed with tic syndrome that may also have this disease and it is curable. My son is doing well and he did not have to go through dialysis after his surgery. Look into this if you feel you are not sure. You can go to webMD or Mayoclinic.com and look this up.

I have sons with Tourette Syndrone. They are now young adults (in their 20's). At one time they had been on clonodine and it worked well. Two are now off of it and the third is on a different medication now. The pressures of high school and college kept them on the meds. One of them has a job with a lot of pressure so he is now taking a different job. When the child is not under as much pressure the tics are not as bad. I too found alternatives for my sons as an outlet for their tics.