Hey all, welcome back to the real-life pharmacology podcast. I apologize if my voice is a little

quirky today, as I've had a little bit of a head gold, but I'm going to battle through and

hopefully it isn't too bothersome for you today. This episode, I am going to cover atomoxetine,

which the brand name for that medication is stratera. Now this medication,

its primary use in clinical practice, the only use I've ever seen it used for is ADHD.

Mechanistically, how this drug works is it inhibits the reuptake of norapinephrine. Now essentially what this does is

increases nor epinephrine's effects in the synapse. So you can, if you remember what norapinephrine does,

you can potentially hypothesize some of the potential adverse effects that might occur on account of that.

And I'll discuss that a little bit further as we go along here.

A couple things I really wanted to point out with regards to use of admoxatine,

it's oral administration, obviously.

There is a boxed warning on this medication for suicidal ideation.

Okay. And that's in pediatrics, adolescent patients. So that's an important thing to remember if you've

got a patient with a significant psych history and issues relating to that. That may definitely be a concern that at a minimum

we would more closely monitor for. One advantage of atomoxetine over traditional stimulants

for ADHD like methylphenidate and amphetamine salts,

atomoxetine is not a controlled substance.

So for, you know, parents who are, you know,

looking for something that's not addictive or, you know,

risk of diversion looking to avoid that,

atomoxetine might be a little bit more useful in that type of situation there okay let's

get into adverse effects so when I think about that noropenephrine increasing type

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