I have a son on Adderall for adhd. I hate giving him that stuff everyday. Recently I have heard of several vitamin treatments. One is with magnesium and vitaminB6, the other is with magnesium and calcium. Has anyone out there ever heard of it? or even better ever tried it? Maybe you have heard of another alternative treatment. I think I’ve tried them all from the “Feingold Diet” to even Homeopothy. No luck.
Thanks, and sorry for my spelling
scraps
All I can think of to suggest is that you browse on Google to see what’s out there. And maybe if this gets bumped, somebody in the Sunday Afternoon Group will have some input.
Improved diets, exercise, etc., may help somewhat, but they aren’t going to take the place of the Adderall.
There are all sorts of companies out there pushing “alternative” treatments for ADHD–diets, herbs, homeopathy, etc.–that are playing off the guilt parents feel about giving the medication. My suggestion would be that if the Adderall works, don’t feel bad about your son using it.
Dr. J
What’s the problem with adderall? Side effects? (I’ve heard of ADHD, but I’ve never heard of adderall.)
Hazel, Adderall is a stimulant. Very much like Rittalin but it doesn’t have as many side affects. It’s not that I feel so guilty about giving it to him, it’s just when he’s off of it, like in the morning or evenig after it’s worn off things get real crazy.
Thanks everyone for your input
scraps
The side effects vary from person to person; and contrary to the hype, the drug IS abusable.
Adderbite might have been a more appropriate namethan Adderall.
I suggest you live with the disease of ADHD every day for a while before making such associations.
Qadgop, MD
Umm, the stuff went through a vogue here where MD’s prescribed it to treat bipolar depression. It got rid of depression just fine, but also induced hypomania. It may be a magic bullet for ADHD, but it has got a nasty bite to it when it’s used inappropriately. Of course, ADHD is clearly never over-diagnosed :rolleyes: , so Adderal is always used appropriately in its treatment. No, I think I’ll stand by my comment.
Well, we were discussing ADHD. You wanna jump into a thread of people discussing surviving breast cancer to tell them that Tamoxifen is a deadly poison and should be avoided at all costs? 'Cuz that’s the impression I got of what you were doing here. I agree that ADHD is over-diagnosed, and too many kids are on meds, and I prescribe it infrequently myself, but dammit, it is an effective treatment for a very difficult illness, and that’s what this thread is about!
Call it snakepoison if you like, just don’t expect to be thanked by the parents of the kids who really benefit from it. And next time grandma takes her heart meds, remind her that she’s taking nitroglycerine, which is really a deadly explosive, too.
To return to the OP:
The Magnesium story all seems to be derived from a single study dating back to 97 http://www.oneaddplace.com/articles/rabiner3.htm (for a synopsis). The study, and a review mentioning it in the Journal of Pediatric Child Health are widely and wildly referenced all over the internet, but it seems that no further testing of the efficacy of magnesium supplements has been done since that time.
Has anyone found any other REAL refs on this ?
As regards the OP, my review of the literature shows only one study on kids with both ADHD and magnesium deficiency. This study claimed that there was more improvement in the kids who were supplemented with magnesium than those who were not. They did not study ADHD kids who had normal magnesium levels. I would suspect (but cannot demonstrate at this time) that most ADHD kids have normal magnesium levels. This is the article cited by Squink, who is actually challenging me to use my brain. I hate when that happens.
Kozielec T, Starobrat-Hermelin B. Assessment of magnesium levels in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD. Magnes Res 1997;10(2):143-8.
I’ve tried a few medical search engines and Google looking for other stuff on the topic, but there’s not much hard science out there I was able to find.
Note also that the article cited was originally published in a journal for magnesium research. Not what I would think of as a mainstream mental health or pediatric journal.
FYI, the Feingold diet has been shown to be completely ineffective for years now.
Personally, a good ole Dex sharpens me up like knives for a bit 'o that ultraviolence.
I am ADD but don’t currently take any medication for it – I should but don’t.
Silo, a former poster here, takes Adderall so he can give you a better idea about the effects of the med. He’s usually over on the #straightdope chat room so possibly you can hop on over there (IRC on the Undernet channel) and have a chat with him about it.
Now, keep in mind that ADD or ADHD can be successfully treated with prescription medication. There are a lot of “alternative” therapies but few, if any at all, work. Mostly because of the brain chemical imbalance, it is difficult to use those alternative therapies. Of course I am not an MD but one that has tried many other alternatives but none have been successful.
One place to learn more about ADHD/ADD is at http://www.chadd.org/
Thanks to all. Especially you, Qudgop the Mercotan. It is a really hard disease to live with. It’s even harder when it’s your little boy and you have to watch him go through all the other stuff that goes along with it. Those of you who have ADHD or live with it know what I mean. And yes, I too agree there are alot of children misdiagnosed with it. I tried for a long time to avoid the drugs, but it gets to the point where you have to do somthing! But, as a mom, I keep looking for that magic somthing that will make him able to control himself without them.
It’s comforting to know you all are out there.