Our 10 year old daughter has developed severe scab picking issues

[barefoot55]

While in the 3rd grade, our daughter had problems concentrating in class and the teacher asked us to look into medications for this issue.  We did and the doctor prescribed concerta.  Within about 3 months she developed the issue of scab picking.  This went on for months.  The doctor suggested her seeing a psychologist but with knowing our daughter better than the doctor, we felt this was ridiculous.  She is a bubbly, outgoing and cheerful child.  She picked without even knowing it.  During the summer, we took her off the medication and lo and behold the picking stopped and the sores healed.

School started back and the teacher called asking why she wasn't on medication this year.  We went to the doctor, told her we didn't want her back on the concerta and she prescribed Vyvanse.  Here we are, mid school year and are months into her picking again.  It is totally out of control now and she has approximately 10-15 sores on her legs/hands. We clean, cover and wrap the areas every night and even have her wearing soft gloves & cotton tights at bed time.  She has now started going past all this to get at them.  They are anywhere from a speck size to half dollar sized at this point.  We are heart broken, frustrated and feel like failures when it comes to helping her stop picking.

She is a beautiful girl and is equally beautiful in personality.

We want to help her without dragging her through medication experiments and psychology appointments.  As of today, we have taken her off the medication and are dedicated to adjusting life as much as we can to get her through this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  We love her so much and see that this is hurting all of us.  What can we do?

[tejodouro]

Please clarify what are the results of not changing her medicine to Strattera?  Will she continue to pick her scabs?  Could something happen as result of these tics? thank you

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

This type of side effect of the the psychostimulants is equivalent to a tic and the only sensible intervention is to stop the medication. Her ADHD can be treated with a non-stimulant medication such as Strattera.