Son pulling hair out

My youngest son has ADHD. He is 12 years old and has been diagnosed both by a doctor and by a child psychologist (had all the testing too).

He is currently using the Daytrana patch for management of his ADHD, he has been on the patch for almost 2 years now. He has recently been prescribed an anxiety medication as the last 6 months it seems he has been pulling his hair out.

He only does this when he is focusing on his school work. He sits there and physically pulls his hair out while concentrating on his homework. He also does this in school. He says it does not hurt, but its huge patches of hair, not just one or two strands, we are talking pulling one strand of hair out at a time on the left side of his head. The right side is completly unaffected as this is the hand he writes with.

We have tried giving him a brush to use to keep the other hand busy, but I believe its too big of a distraction. I recently had to cut his hair down to stubble as he has huge patches of hair missing!!

His psychologist put him on anti-anxiety meds to see if that would help. it seemed to for a little while but he is now doing this again.

Does or has anyone else had this experience with their child?

He has also been digressing in school. He is to be going on to 6th grade next year, but fear we may be holding him back because he is not able due to acting more like a 2nd or 3rd grader than a 5th grader.

As a parent coordinator of Miami, Fla. chapter of CHADD for 12 years, I learned a lot--including that a percentage of people with ADD/ADHD also have Tourette's syndrome--as my oldest son does.  Rather than keep thinking it must be anxiety, ask your psychologist to consider that the hair-pulling could be a tic behavior and try the medication that helps for that instead. 

My son had difficulty learning because he was so busy concentrating on concentrating and not ticcing.  Behaviors deteriorate due to frustration and not understanding what is happening to him.  Try www.tourettesyndrome.net.  Make certain that if your child needs special education to learn that you know how to get what he needs by calling your state's Parent Training Information Center listed at http://www.nichcy.org/Pages/StateSpecificInfo.aspx.  Explore that site thoroughly as it is a good one for parent resources.

Michele