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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Medication and how it works
Atomoxetine has its own unpleasant discontinuation effects, closer to those of an antidepressant. So a break because a prescription ran out, or because someone decided over a weekend that it was doing nothing, is not a neutral experiment. Wanting to stop is a fair thing to want, and it needs a taper agreed with whoever prescribed it. Set a reminder for repeat prescriptions so you never learn this the hard way.
This explains how treatments work. Never start, stop or change a medication because of something you read here.
'you can ask those who have knowledge if you do not know' (Quran 16:43). Stopping a medicine is exactly the moment for that question rather than for a private decision.
النحل
وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَا مِن قَبۡلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالࣰ ا نُّوحِيٓ إِلَيۡهِمۡۖ فَسۡـَٔلُوٓاْ أَهۡلَ ٱلذِّكۡرِ إِن كُنتُمۡ لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ
[Prophet], all the messengers We sent before you were simply men to whom We had given the Revelation: you [people] can ask those who have knowledge if you do not know
Qur’an 16:43read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A clinical review of atomoxetine describes its benefit building gradually across weeks rather than appearing within hours. That has consequences at both ends: a gap in treatment is not made up by the next day, and restarting means waiting through the build-up again. The review is about onset rather than withdrawal, so take it as a reason for care rather than as a measure of risk.
Clemow DB, Bushe CJ. (2015). Atomoxetine in patients with ADHD: A clinical and pharmacological review of the onset, trajectory, duration of response and implications for patients.. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
The body settles itself around a medicine, and removing it all at once leaves that adjustment exposed.
If several days have already been missed, ring the prescriber instead of simply restarting at the old dose.
Before anyone concludes that medication does not work for you, check what dose was actually reached. Doses in general practice often stay lower than a specialist would use, and a fair share of so called non responders respond once the dose goes up.
A workable rule for anything new: do not be the first to use it, and do not be the last either. Both ends carry a cost.
The question that usually matters most is not which molecule but how many hours it covers. A medicine that has worn off by four in the afternoon leaves the hardest stretch of the day uncovered.