Reply to Child with ADHD-- if you decided not to medicate, why?

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "Child with ADHD-- if you decided not to medicate, why?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]
I have two kids now in high school, both diagnosed with ADHD in elementary. We decided not to medicate because we didn’t feel the benefits were worth the risks, IN OUR SITUATION. I do believe that stimulant medications have risks and research has not shown that the benefits are clear over the long run. Again, this was our situation because our kids responded well enough to other interventions. They aren’t straight A students or even close (and I doubt they would be on meds) and they do struggle with concentration and getting assignments done but they have also had to learn some really good strategies to cope.

A couple of the studies that influenced our decision:
Medication: The smart-pill oversell. Evidence is mounting that medication for ADHD doesn’t make a lasting difference to schoolwork or achievement
http://www.nature.com/news/medication-the-smart-pill-oversell-1.14701

Large NIH longitudinal study found little benefit long term
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3063150/
From the conclusions:
“Thus, although the MTA data provided strong support for the acute reduction of symptoms with intensive medication management, these long-term follow-up data fail to provide support for long-term advantage of medication treatment beyond two years for the majority of children—at least as medication is monitored in community settings. Decisions about starting, continuing, and stopping medication may have to be made on an individualized basis, avoiding untested assumptions about continuing benefit, and using periodic trial discontinuations to check for need and benefit.”
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics