My oldest son has been diagnosed with ADHD. Not severe, but something that needs attention.
So, we try all kinds of non-drug things to try to help, but they didn’t really help, so we gave in and his Dr. prescribed him Concerta. He was on that for a bit, but was having anxiety, so we discontinued it.
Now, we’re trying Ritalin. We get the prescription filled. Generic is available, so we get that. The label says Amphetamine Salts. :eek: We’re feeding our kid speed! 20mg a day!
It seems to be working; he’s focusing better, we don’t have to cajole him into finishing his homework, etc. But WTF! How the hell can his little body (or anyone’s for that matter) hold up to taking 20mg of speed every day? The Dr., of course, reassured us that the speed just works to combat the ADHD, it doesn’t affect people with ADHD like it does folks without it. But I simply cannot wrap my mind around that.
Is this true? Can he take speed for years and have no adverse effects?
BTW, we’re under a Dr.'s continuous care and I’m not asking for medical advice, just about the long term effects of a child taking speed like this.
That is not Ritailn, but IIRC the generic for Adderal. In general (again IIRC) the typical dose of Adderal is 1/2 that of Ritailin, so that 20 mg/d is like 40 mg/d, which seems high but not out of the question starting dose. The generic name for Ritalin is something like methylphenidate (which BTW is also a stimulant, but you knew that already).
I have seen studies that providing kids these meds tend to prevent them from finding alternatives on their own - which they will, both legal or not as a way to self medicate, if you are lucky it will only be caffene. I suggest checking/joining out CHADD.org as they provide a lot of info in such subjects.
Nope, the Dr. prescribed Ritalin and checked the “generic OK” box. And yeah, part of the reason I caved on allowing my Dr. to give my son speed is that it may prevent him from self-medicating down the road.
Damn! I wish I could find a picture of the pill online so I could be sure. It’s a small square white tablet with an M on one side and a 10 on the other. Should I go punch out the pharmacist now?
I don’t know why that happened, but please put your son first. ADD meds don’t work for everyone the same way, and some people have a very hard time finding ANYTHING that works at all. You have found something that is working for him - which is great, now work with that knowleage, and your Dr’s expertise to develope a effective ‘treatment’ program.
Since he started w/ Adderall, and it works, I would talk it over w/ the Dr, verify the dose and see if this is a good way to go.
Actually it may have been a ‘happy accident’, since Concerta is a form of Ritalin, which didn’t work well for him.
As for how his little body can take it for years, Children are sometimes, if not many times able to tolerate things much better then adults, the big difference is that a child not realize when they begin to have problems with it. And yes stim meds act to calm down a ADD mind, some people actually take such meds to help then sleep.
[my personal explanation]The way I understand it is that a ADD mind is looking for something stimulating (this causes distractibility, or impulsiveness - which is creating something stimulating), normal school settings don’t usually provide this level of stimulation, so his mind scans for something else (he has no control over this). A stim med elevates the level of stimulation, by increasing the level of nerve activity, so normal school stuff does have that level of stimulation, so his mind stops scanning, and just focus on the work at hand.[/my personal explanation]
Also FYI MANY people find a big difference between generics and name brand in ADD meds, and I have heard the recommendation to always try the name brand first, then if it works go to the generic. Yes I know they are suppose to be the same thing, but for some reason they perform differently for many.
There is growing evidence (one of which is here that suggests that there is a link between ADHD and autistic spectrum disorders. The immediate problem seems to be in the Executive Function of the brain, responsible for focus and attention. But there is also evidence of brainstructures that are involved with autistic spectrum disorders. This may also extend to ADHD as well, and studies are ongoing. My son has been on Adderall and then Concerta for four years without problems. Generic drugs have to pass the same stringent FDA requirements that the name brand drugs do, so they can be as safe and effective as the name brand ones can be.
Cardiovascular risks, most likely. There’s probably some longitudinal studies in progress now, tracking some of the early cohorts. But definitive results are still 20-30 years away (I don’t think research on street use translates to controlled dose oral use).
That’s the type of thing that concerns me. I find it hard to believe that if someone is ADHD, then speed targets that little part of the brain function, and that part only, and only does exactly what is needed, and no more. It seems like more of a shotgun approach.
A lot of medications say that no one under the age of 18 should take them. I started taking one of those meds (Paxil) when I was about 10 or 11. I haven’t had any side effects that are uncommon, and the pros outweigh the cons for me, personally. But are so many meds labelled only for adults because it can have adverse effects, or for some legal reason (not any more dangerous for kids than adults) but a legal case of harm would be harder for a manufacturer to win if it was a child who was hurt?
I recommend these books “Commonsense Rebellion: Taking Back Your Life from Drugs, Shrinks, Corporations, and a World Gone Crazy” by Bruce Levine and
The Myth of the A.D.D Child:50 Ways to Improve Your Child’s Behavior and Attention Span Without Drugs, Labels, or Coercion by Thomas Armstrong.
Well I took quite a bit of Adderall for recreational purposes during high school.
I don’t have any lasting adverse effects that I know of, but I wouldn’t recommend it. (for a child especially) That’s some mighty powerful stuff.
Yes, it makes it much easier to concentrate, but like all drugs, there is a price. The wear on my body and mind from lack of sleep / lack of any desire to eat was pretty harsh.
And yes, I was abusing it but I usually didn’t take much more than 40mg at a time (60 after I had built some tolerance but then I let it subside and went back to 40), and it would get me incredibly jacked for hours and hours. And that was at 17 (~160 lbs). So I imagine 20mg at 7 would be pretty substantial.
And anyway, it’s easy to become dependent on and start feeling like you can’t focus without it, which I can’t imagine being a great thing either.