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Inattention means a person may have difficulty staying on task, sustaining focus, and staying organized, and these problems are not due to defiance or lack of comprehension.

Hyperactivity means a person may seem to move about constantly, including in situations when it is not appropriate, or excessively fidgets, taps, or talks. In adults, hyperactivity may mean extreme restlessness or talking too much.

Impulsivity means a person may act without thinking or have difficulty with self-control. Impulsivity could also include a desire for immediate rewards or the inability to delay gratification. An impulsive person may interrupt others or make important decisions without considering long-term consequences.

(National Institute of Mental Health)

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Key Insights:

A group of 579 children with ADHD Combined Type, aged 7 to 9.9 years, were assigned to 14 months of medication management.

Children were from grades 1 through 4, and in residence with the same primary caretaker(s) for the last 6 months or longe.

They were assigned random medication management, behavioral treatment, combined treatment, or community care for 14 months to see how kids would react and was it harmful for the kids.

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Key Insights:

Objective of study was to assess the stimulant methylphenidate. This is usually in the medication that is given to students who have ADHD.

The studies aim was to find a correlation between methylphenidate and the risk of depression.

A population-based on electric medical records database was used for this study.

The study gathered information on data for presumption of ADHD medication, diagnosis of depression and prescription of antidepressant medication.

Ages of participants in the study ranged from the ages of 6 though 19 who were degassed with ADHD medication between January 2007 and December 2016.

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Key insights:

Study proposed to exploit the understanding of medication being given to children with ADHD.

The behavior of specialist physicians varies considerably across hospitals which can affect what the child medication the child is given to take.

Parents may, of course, refuse pharmacological treatment...Regardless of the choice of pharmacological treatment and the severity of the condition, the reference program advises that children with an ADHD diagnosis are offered social skills training.

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The following is a personal essay, and not a medical recommendation endorsed by ADDitude. For more information about medication, speak with your physician.
From childhood, I've been wary of magic.

Our culture and media trained me to be. Look at what happens to the prince in Disney's Princess and the Frog when he goes to the voodoo man to try to get riches. Or there's the queen in Rumpelstiltskin who almost has to give up her child in exchange for help landing her man. Even in Snow White, it is the magic potion in the apple that almost kills her.

In all of these stories, the message is clear. Magic comes with a price. You don't get what you expect in the end. It's better to be honest, do the hard work, and don't rely on magic shortcuts to get your end rewards.
["Taking Meds Is My Son's Decision, Not Mine"]
So you can see my hesitation with parts of modern medicine, especially pills. I mean, there's always some side effect when you take medicine. So if there's a way to tough it out, change my diet, add more exercise, or get more sleep, I'd rather do that than some kind of chemical intervention.

All this got challenged when my daughter started kindergarten and began having trouble in school.

Over her first three years of school, we watched a pattern emerge. She started the school year excited and engaged. Then, as the year progressed, the novelty wore off, and the reserves of strength built up over an unstructured summer got worn down, and we heard from the teachers.

"She's not completing her work," they said. "She doesn't seem to be progressing. She's not playing with the other students. She wiggles out of her seat. I just can't get her to pay attention at all."
[When Parents Disagree About ADHD Medication]
Some of it I could understand. She had very asynchronous development. Intellectually, she was like a kid in a candy store with an unlimited budget. She could recognize every letter of the alphabet at 17 months old and multiply two digit numbers in her head at six years old. She could create stories in her head with the complexity of a multi-level video game at six. Yet her awareness of her body in space (which I have learned is called proprioceptive awareness) was delayed. She could not keep track of where her feet might need to be to keep from tripping over something, she wiggled incessantly, and you could forget dribbling a basketball.

Despite knowing these things, I didn't know how to understand what the teachers were telling me. It had to be that she was just young. It must just be that the teachers weren't trying hard enough to engage her. After all, it couldn't be that something was wrong with her.

But my husband and I didn't want to rule out a need for some extra help.

So we went through rounds of specialists: pediatrician, occupational therapist, neuropsychologist, developmental optometrist and finally neurologist. We heard different things, " sensory integration disorder," "extremely bright and gifted," "written expression disorder," " dysgraphia," and finally "ADHD, predominantly inattentive type." Through occupational therapy, writing therapy, applied behavioral therapy, in-class intervention, vision therapy, nutritional supplements, a gluten-free food regimen ... we tried almost everything to help her. Except medication.
["They Say I Rushed to Medicate My Child"]
None of it helped her pay attention in school or do her work any faster.

But still, I did not want to put stimulants into my daughter. "I am not putting my child on medication," I said multiple times.

Was it fear? Was I was afraid of some of the effects that I'd heard other kids go through: the pain of coming off the pills, stimulant dependency, not knowing how to regulate herself when she's older, bad drug combinations when she's a teenager, feeling generally weird and not like herself, losing her wonderful imagination, anxiety, lack of appetite, lack of sleep?

Or was the part about not wanting to take the shortcut? Did I think that it was cheating to do it with the meds? Did I think that she would lose out on learning to self-regulate if I gave her a pill?

Or was it a third thing? Was it denial? Did I just not want to believe that my daughter really couldn't do it on her own?

I think it was all the above.

But, one particularly difficult day, after a very talented and understanding teacher told me my daughter was having trouble staying present through a four-sentence conversation, I watched my sweet girl struggle to pay enough attention to her math homework to even write the number 6.

And I said, "This is enough. It's too hard on her." I called her neurologist's office and said, "It's time to try medication."

So they gave us pills. They gave us an extended release version of a fast-acting stimulant. The low dose is metabolized over the course of 10 to 12 hours, just long enough for my daughter to do her schoolwork, but not so long that it's still in her system when she's trying to sleep. And there's no need to use it on weekends or vacations.

I skeptically tried it, watching carefully for side effects. All I saw the first day was my wonderful, playful daughter who maybe had an easier time finishing her thoughts when she spoke.

But at school, her teachers told me it was a radical difference. She did her work without redirection. She stopped rolling around on the floor during carpet time. She expressed opinions without being asked. She began socializing with the other kids and working well in a group project. All in the first week.

I am sure that this little pill really isn't going to solve all her attention problems on its own. We still have to work on some other skills. As she grows, we will have to change dosage and prescriptions. And sometimes she won't like it as much as she does right now.

But in the meantime, it's making me rethink my position on magic.

Because magic isn't always dark and dangerous in those stories. Sometimes there's good magic that's used to counteract the bad magic. And that's always the magic that comes from a place deep inside of us. A place that comes from the most true form of love.

And I'm hoping that this turns out to be that kind of magic pill.
This piece appeared in Brain, Child-The Magazine for Thinking Mothers (brainchildmag.com).
How to Treat ADHD in Children: Next Questions

1. What ADHD medications are used to treat children?

2. Is ADHD medication right for my child?

3. What are common side effects associated with ADHD medication?

4. What natural treatments help kids with ADHD?

5. How can I find an ADHD specialist near me?

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Why I Didn't Want to Medicate My Daughter With a Magic Pill

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When my daughter had trouble in school, I was hesitant to try medication to treat her ADHD. After seeing the results, I think it may be a magic pill.

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Free materials and resources on ADHD for families, teachers, healthcare providers, and public health professionals.

Check out CDC's list of ADHD materials below!

Free materials on ADHD‎

* A toolkit for partners

* Fact sheets
* Infographics/posters
* Videos
* Podcast
* Webcasts
* Materials from other organizations

Behavior therapy Medication
What are infographics?‎

Infographics (also known as "information graphics") are graphic pictures of data, information or knowledge that tell a story.

Text version‎

What parents can expect in behavior therapy

Parents typically attend 8 to 16 sessions with a therapist and learn strategies to help their child. Sessions may involve groups or individual families.

* The therapist meets regularly with the family to monitor progress and provide support

* Between sessions, parents practice using the skills they've learned from the therapist.

After therapy ends, families continue to experience improved behavior and reduced stress. #VitalSigns

Text version ‎

What parents learn when trained in behavior therapy

* Positive Communication
* Positive Reinforcement

* Structure and Discipline

Behavior therapy, given by parents, teaches children to better control their own behavior, leading to improved functioning at school home and in relationships. Learning and practicing behavior therapy requires time and effort but has lasting benefits for the child. #VitalSigns

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Data that was taken was conducted from children from the ages of 4 through 10. Population of Danish children born in the period from 1990 to 1999. Study was conducted on children who took prescribed medication and capital.

In the analysis, the document that effects are smaller in later cohorts where more children are diagnosed and treated pharmacologically before the age of 10. There are still significant gains from treatment in the later cohorts (Dalsgaard).

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Results show that children diagnosed with ADHD on the margin of receiving pharmacological treatment have fewer hospital contacts if treated and have fewer interactions with the police.

Doctors diagnosed children at times without having any data and could cause the child damage in the future if not needed.

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Six major outcome domains were identified:

1. ADHD symptoms were measured with inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity sub-scales of parent-teacher.

2. Oppositional/aggressive symptoms were measured with a parent and teacher SNAP oppositional-defiant disorder subscale;

3. Social skills were measured with a parent- and teacher-completed subscale from the Social Skills Rating System

4. Internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) were measured with an internalizing subscale from parent- and teacher-completed SSRS.

5. Parent-child relations were measured with 2 composite scales from a parent-child relationship questionnaire

6. Academic achievement was measured with 3 subscales from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test

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This started with a 28-day, double-blind, daily-switch titration of methylphenidate hydrochloride, using 5 randomly ordered repeats each of placebo, 5 mg, 10 mg, and 15 or 20 mg (higher doses for children >25 kg).

Cross-site teams of experienced clinicians blindly reviewed graphs portraying parent and teacher ratings of responses to each of the 4 doses and by consensus selected each child's best dose

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There were no differences between the medication management and combined treatment groups in the proportion of subjects maintained on the various medications.

Combined treatment and medication management treatments were clinically and statistically superior to behavioral treatment and community care in reducing children's ADHD symptoms.

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Failing at Normal: An ADHD Success Story | Jessica McCabe | TEDxBratislava

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WebMD explains the different types of ADHD.

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Methods:

Included subjects with ADHD who were diagnosed only with ADHD and not depression to eliminate any error in the study.

The index date was the defined as the first date of medication of methylphenidate in the HIRA data-base.

Data showed that when on the ADHD medication. Depression later came to appear.

Since this study only includes data from 2007 onwards, it may be difficult to rule out the possibility of recurrence of previous depression before 2007.

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In total, out of 43,259 individuals that were diagnosed between July 1,2007 and December 31, 2007. They excluded 8,556 subjects who were diagnosed within that time to eliminate cross data and not be accurate.

The subgroups of children who were initiated MPH within 1 year after ADHD diagnosis showed a similar pattern to the overall analysis. The IRR during MPH exposure was 20.93 (95% CI: 19.02−23.03, p < 0.001) in the total age group and 18.5 (95% CI: 15.78−21.68, p < 0.001) in the young age group.

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This study found a significantly positive temporal association between MDD and MPH treatment in youth with ADHD.

This finding suggests that the risk of depression increases after initiation of MPH treatment, with an increased risk of depression prior to the start of MPH treatment that begins to fall after discontinuation of MPH.

This study showed the before and after taking MPH which is the ADHD medication and showed the effects that it has on children.