Deborah Does Navel-Gazing » ADHD treatment

Some Kids Respond Better to ADHD Drug Than Others

Deborah — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:49:03 +0000

HealthDay News — Children with specific gene variants respond better to the drug methylphenidate Ritalin, Concerta, which is widely used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD, a new study says.The finding could help improve treatment of ADHD, according to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center researchers."Physicians don’t have a good way of predicting who will experience great improvement in ADHD symptoms with a particular medication, so currently we use a trial-and-error approach. Unfortunately, as a result, finding an effective treatment can take a long time," lead investigator Dr. Tanya Froehlich, a physician in the division of developmental and behavioral pediatrics, said in a medical center news release.

via Some Kids Respond Better to ADHD Drug Than Others.

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Social Skills Training for Children with ADHD

Deborah — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:58:32 +0000

Very few children are naturals at social interaction and sail through childhood making friends effortlessly, but children with ADHD/ADD have a harder time socializing than most. I remember being laughed at when I marched up to my 4th grade crush and told him I liked him and wanted him to come over to my house in front of his friends. I was terrible at picking up on social cues and figuring out the unspoken rules. Even more painful than my own memories is the possibility that my son might go through the same thing, although his issues are a little different than mine were. For some reason, I was more ADD than ADHD when I was a kid, but my son is very definitely in the ADHD camp. As such, he often has problems with being bossy, interrupting other people and not wanting to take turns. If you’re the parent of a child with ADHD, you might be in the same position and wondering how to help.

via Social Skills Training for Children with ADHD – ADHD.

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Lawrence’s New ADHD Medication

Deborah — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:26:34 +0000

My son Lawrence started kindergarten last year. It was kind of tough on him. The class was three hours long, and they only had a short, ten minute recess about halfway through. And unlike pre-school, there was a curriculum that had to be completed by the end of the year. Goodbye Show and Tell, hello learning by rote. His teacher was wonderful and very patient, but it eventually became clear that he was having trouble. Nearly every day he got a time-out for talking in class. His teacher worked with him on these issues, but after all, there were nineteen other children in the class. So she was very concerned that the first grade teachers would be less tolerant than she was, and that his self esteem would suffer from constant discipline and being made to feel like a bad kid. His grades were good, and everyone found him very personable, but he was definitely disruptive.

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Diagnosing My Son’s ADHD

Deborah — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:37:11 +0000

As I said in my previous SharePost, my son’s kindergarten teacher recommended that we have him evaluated by a pediatric psychiatrist because of what I’ll call behavioral problems, for the sake of a better term. Basically, he was having trouble sitting still and keeping quiet in class. We weren’t too surprised to hear what his teacher had to say. He runs everywhere in our house and frequently blows off steam by hurling himself on the couch or doing somersaults.

While I knew it was a good idea to get him evaluated, I had some trepidation. According to reviews on a local mailing list I belong to, the only doctor in our network tends to see Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder everywhere. If we go outside our network, diagnosis and treatment could cost thousands of dollars, which we don’t have. So I made an appointment with the doctor and hoped for the best. His office sent out a form for Lawrence’s kindergarten teacher to fill out. Bless her heart, she came over the night before the appointment, after the school year had ended, to go over it with us.
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Note: I published these posts in the wrong order on the HealthCentral site. I apologize for any confusion.

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When to Give ADHD Medication a Shot

Deborah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:29:08 +0000

So, as I said in my last SharePost, my son was recently diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I had my doubts about the diagnosis. Lawrence’s behavior didn’t exactly fit ADHD, and the doctor also is known for diagnosing ADHD pretty frequently. But I had decided to go with it for now and give the medication, Vyvanse, a shot.

Treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is, on its surface, somewhat insane. You would think that giving someone who’s hyperactive a sedative is, to say the least, counterintuitive. But the brains of people with ADHD react in a completely opposite manner to amphetamines than people without ADHD. Amphetamines make us calmer and more focused. Strange but true.

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