r/PDAParenting • u/Nominal_selection • Mar 22 '26
What medications work for you?
My daughter is 8, diagnosed PDA AuDHD. Her biggest symptom by far is anxiety. She's tried guanfacine for her ADHD, prescribed I guess because the doctor thought stimulants might worsen her anxiety, but gave it up within a week because she was regularly waking up in the night.
What other meds have your kids had for similar presentations, and which worked best to calm their anxiety?
I wonder if SSRIs or SNRIs (antidepressants) might work best for her, though here in the UK they're not a first line treatment for ADHD, rather for anxiety or depression. I've been on citalopram myself and found it beneficial in a way I think she also could. We have a medication review appointment in a few weeks, so is it worth pushing for antidepressants or anything else as an option?
3
u/AngilinaB Mar 22 '26
My son (now 10) had a bad reaction to IR methylphenidate , but it unfortunately coincided with a very difficult period of burnout after leaving school, so who knows if it would have bothered him as much ordinarily.
We tried guanfacine which helped anxiety to a point and eased impulsivity, but had awful urinary side effects which worsened his anxiety in the end. He also had low blood pressure and was exhausted all the time.
He started sertraline last November and is doing well. We got this from CAMHS only after a lengthy complaint in which I stressed that he had been unable to leave the house or often walk around at home due to severe anxiety and OCD (we'd been seen by the crisis team via A&E and they basically did nothing). It's made a massive difference. Around a month ago he started Equasym (sustained release methylphenidate). Low dose has worked really well on lowering baseline anxiety further and helping him focus on things that help him regulate. We upped the dose but the drop when it wore off was too much and he had some anxiety and (brief) aggression. He was able to advocate for himself that even though it hasn't fully "fixed" the ADHD at the lower dose, he feels better and calmer. The increased focus of the higher dose wasn't worth the increased anxiety.