Hi and welcome to the forum. I dont get on very often but I do try to every week. I am sorry to hear about your sons ts and all of your struggles.. My daughter was diagnosed at the age of 9. I know a few children who are taking Tenex and are doing ok on this medication. My daughter is not currently taking medication because I have left that up to her. I am personally not fond of it however I promised her that at any time if she thought or felt her tics were too much to handle that I would support her choice. We have Tenex in our home in case that day comes soon. I think its great that you have questions and want answers.. It just means you care and want to make sure your educated on this medication.. That is called love. I am sorry to hear about your husband.. My husband is now coming around to it. She (11 years old now) always had mild tics and often had more ocd issues then anything else now at the age of 11 her tics are more of an issue then ocd. However she always had issues with repetitive thoughts.. Bad as well which caused her extreme anxiety and in turn caused her to not sleep. The doctor put her on Clonodine but it did not help.. Now she takes melatonin before bed and it helps drastically with those thoughts before bed and it allows her to fall asleep.. With out the right amount.. Quality and quantity of sleep then her tics are worse. I am sorry that I do not have the experience with Tenex but i am sure someone who has will come on soon.. if not then I will ask my friend to comment..
Take care
Jen

Thanks so much Jen. I am nervous but hopeful. He had another bad thought last night and I told him to scream "Bad thoughts go away" Of course, my husband was not home yet thank goodness.

I put on soothing music and rubbed his back so he can relax. The anxieties and hyperactivity have gotten much worse over the last couple of weeks and I am hoping it is a phase, but it will be hard to tell once he starts the meds, since I won't be able to tell if and what is helping him.

I think Colondine is similar to Tenex, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I did not even tell my husband yet as he came home late last night and left early this morning. He works every weekend in the summer - but I am OK with that :)

Thanks again - hoping everything works out, I am heartbroken right now.

Glad to hear something is working for your daughter. I was never a believer in meds either, but I think I have no choice right now.

Hi, I just found your forum and I'm thrilled. I have a 12 year old son who was diagnosed with TS when he was 8. His tics have come and gone (as they always do), but in the past few months they've gotten really bad and stayed. Our psychiatrist put him on Intuniv (new type of Tenex) about 6 weeks ago. Worked him up form 1mg to 4mg. At first we didn't really see any changes, but just recently at 4mg his tics are out of control. I decided to not give him his dose last night and his tics are quite as bad today. He's also on concerta which can increase tics so tonight/tomorrow we're going to experiment with giving him Intuniv tonight and no concerta tomorrow. I'm thinking it was the combination of both the Intuniv and Concerta that increased his tics. I'm hoping that with the Intuniv (which is often prescribed for ADHD) we can kill 2 birds with one stone. But really it all just seems like an experiment and my sweet 12 year old gets to be the guinea pig. Fortunately, we are very open with him with what were doing and he's very mature about this process. We are also trying to eliminate sugar and chocolate which seem to be triggers. Sorry for the long response, just so glad I have others to bounce things off of. Blessings.

My daughter is 7 years old and has mild vocal tics and a gross motor tic that causes her to repeatedly touch things. She was unable to tolerate Zoloft. It caused her to be super hyper and anxious. She was then started on Luvox for OCD and it has helped her mind to not get "stuck" as often. However, it has caused her tics to be a little worse. The doctor then started her on Intuniv (same as Tenex) to help with the tics. She started on a 1 mg dose and was unable to tolerate this either. She is just very sensitive to medications. She was very groggy and flat. The tics did resolve with the Tenex for sure, but I had to make a choice with her. Did I want the tics gone and have her zoned out, or have her happy with tics? Tough call. I have heard that the Tenex does wonders, but we are just not ready for it yet. When the day comes that the tics are bothering her, then we might try again. I know what you mean about being scared to start the medication. I was worried sick and cried all day when she was a zombie. BUT, at least I gave it a try and I know. She was back to herself in a day or so. You won't know until you give it a try.

Thanks for sharing guys. He has now been on the Tenex for a week and so far so good. He was a bit irritable the first couple of days and is still tired at times, but it seems to have helped with the OCD thoughts. His tics were never really bad, so it is hard to tell if it has had an effect on them. I am actually going to have him tested for Pandas in a couple of weeks to see if that may actually be the cause of all this.

My 7 year old son w TS and AdHd has been on Tenex for about 5 months now. They started him on 1/2 mg mornings 1mg at night. Then after 2 weeks wanted to move him up to 1mg twice a day. He too was very groggy and zombie like the first week but that affect wore off and I changed my mind about how I felt about meds!(I used to be very against it) we decided to stay at the 1/2 in the am because even though he still has some small tics and behaivor issues, I still have my son and not some zombie! We did swich to Intuniv for a week same dose and it was a terrible week for us so we went back to Tenex. Hope this helps, good luck! I know I'm gonna need it with my son going back to school in a week!

Hi there! My name is Terri and I have a 15 year old with TS. Alot if what your son is going thru my
son has as well. He has been on Tenex for years, honestly there is not a magic pill but it is the combination of the meds.

Hi Topaz, As another response to your question, I have been taking Guanficine (a generic brand of Tenex) for about 12 years now for Tourettes and I gotta say out of the medications I've tried it's been by far the most helpful. It does wonders for my facial tics and physical symptoms. However it doesn't really go that far for stopping unwanted thoughts or anxiety but it's a start. It's hard to say if it will work the same way for your son depending on his symptoms but I'd say give it about a month or so for it to fully kick in.
Also another thing about it is that be careful not miss a dose. For some reason other medications, if you forget to take it hits you like a truck. Again though, I don't know if it will be that way with your son but I hope any of this helps.

Thanks everyone - I am definitely going to give it a chance to work. We go back to the doctor next month.

I also recently went to a specialist for Pandas. I am thinking more and more that this is what he has. The doctor agrees. The symptoms came on so suddenly, and he has a lot of the other symptoms of this disorder.

So now we are also treating him with a strong antibiotic and he has gone for blood work.

Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this so I can figure out the best way to treat him - school starts next week and I don't know how he will do.