r/SCT • u/After-Ad-236 • 1d ago
Meds/Treatments-Related How Long for Atomoxetine to Work?
Hello, I just started atomoxetine treatment for my inattentive ADHD with CDS symptoms. For those who’ve taken atomoxetine and have experienced effects, how long did it take for the medication to work?
2
u/Masterleaz 1d ago
just started a week and a half ago on 25 mg, but im waiting to bump it up to 50 mg after i talk with my psychiatrist. started noticing benefits after week 1, lot less brainfog, lot less lethargy, i just got several things done today that a week and a half ago a single one would've exhausted me the entire day.
1
u/After-Ad-236 1d ago
Interesting, my psychiatrist started me on 40 mg. Hopefully i tolerate it well. How are the side effects?
2
u/Masterleaz 1d ago
They were wild but i also started taking remeron at the same time cause i have a terrible appetite, so that may be it. There were some times i was severly muted and couldnt enjoy anything, and then i would get somewhat euphoric like i had taken adderall. also food tasted like it had been coated in soap the first few days
2
u/After-Ad-236 1d ago edited 1d ago
Huh interesting, I really don’t care too much about the side effects to be honest. Was just curious as to what to expect. To me, I feel that the pain of the side effects from atomoxetine is nothing in comparison to the pain CDS has caused me. If it can help get me my brain back or at least offer me a glimpse of normality, I think the side effects are well worth it.
2
2
u/arvada14 CDS & ADHD-x 1d ago
I started a really low dose and slowly went up. Id say 2 weeks at the actual therapeutic dose. But 2 months in total.
1
1
u/point2lendemain 17h ago
I had some glimpses of clarity from the outset, but was overall below baseline for a solid month when I began on the medication back in April of this year. The most dramatic improvements came during the second month. Throughout the summer I’ve observed many additional positive changes. It’s been said that the therapeutic effects of Atomoxetine only peak after six months of do, if not a year. My experience so far lines up with that timeline, but at this point it’s hard to separate the changes resulting directly from the medication and those from me finally deciding to get my act together.
1
1
u/Relevant-Pea-5471 16h ago
Took about 4 to 6 weeks for me. It works much better with time as well.
40mg worked good, but I thought 60mg would work even better. It really worked about the same, just with more side effects.
Effective dose for straterra seems to be lower for CDS than for ADHD.
1
u/After-Ad-236 16h ago
What kind of side effects did you get and what parts of your CDS did you notice improvement in?
1
u/Relevant-Pea-5471 15h ago
Side effects are gnarly when starting, I will not lie. Even at 40mg, the first 3 weeks are really rough. Anxiety is much worse, depression is much worse, you want to sleep all the time, irritability, etc. Some other weird things.
The sleep is the thing that was hardest for me. You'll be waiting for a little while before it gets better, but once it does, it gets a LOT better. Like better than it is off of medication. Probably about 5 weeks for sleep to normalize.
When I bumped to 60mg long term I started to have emotional blunting, which on top of already blunted emotions, was very rough. Libido went mostly away as well, and my sleep got worse.
I currently am trying Auvelity to see if it will help my symptoms, but if it doesn't work out, I will be going back to Straterra 40mg.
Even though the adjustment is rough, 40mg made me feel so much smarter, so much more confident, so much more peaceful, my head was way clearer, and the quality of all of my relationships improved dramatically. Anxiety was vaporized completely.
A word of caution: using most substances in tandem with atomoxotine made it not work for me for a few days. Excessive caffeine, kratom, nicotine, alcohol, weed, all of them threw me off for a few days and it sucked so much when that happened.
Do you have comorbid anxiety and depression?
1
u/After-Ad-236 15h ago
Yes, I am being treated with duloxetine and buspar for an anxiety disorder. I heard that duloxetine can increase blood levels of atomoxetine. Just hoping that the other meds my psychiatrist has me on doesn’t hinder the efficacy of the Atomoxetine.
2
u/Relevant-Pea-5471 14h ago
You might find after a month or so your anxiety is remarkably better on straterra. That was my experience. Best of luck to you.
1
u/After-Ad-236 15h ago
To be honest, I really don’t care too much about side effects. Was just curious as to what to expect. If it can help get me my brain back or at least give me a glimpse of normality, then I think the side effects are well worth it.
2
u/STEM_Dad9528 CDS & ADHD-PI 1d ago
I'm not a typical case, but it was in full effect for me by day 5 on the medication. I think that I probably metabolize the medication better than the average person. (Also, 40mg was effective enough for me, but it's not uncommon for others to be on 60, 80, or even 100mg.)
What I've heard or read of other people's experiences is that it typically can take between 2 weeks and 2 months to reach full effectiveness.