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FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

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Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#241

Post by nlitened »

iovrthoughtthis wrote: post #174

i am so surprised that, for a community of people that see themselves so rational, there are so many who effectively deny the existence of adhd. i cant help but observe that this might be because it flys in the face of the common western ideal of “anyone can do anything if you just work hard enough” and that many of our identities are tied to that shared belief.

I think prevalent ADHD self-diagnosis (and doctor-assisted over-diagnosis) kind of devalues the sheer amount of hard work most people put in to achieve good things in life.

When I hear "it's so easy for you but I cannot concentrate on boring things because I have ADHD", it's REALLY hard to not get viscerally defensive, although I rationally understand that there could really be very rare medical conditions in play.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#242

Post by whalesalad »

nerdbaggy wrote: post #17

Seems that lots of people only think ADHD people have a hard time paying attention. If it was that simple I would be so happy. Here are just a few of the things I struggle with. - Will power. People with ADHD struggle sooooo much with will power. It’s a constant struggle with everything in life and really wears you down. - Constantly putting on a fake front pretending you don’t have ADHD. - Rejection sensitivity - Fe…

Honestly the term “ADHD” has as much meaning as “Cancer”.

It’s a huge blanket diagnosis.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#243

Post by runawaybottle »

Leparamour wrote: post #234
runawaybottle wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey I never ran a day in my life. I found out if I take steroids I can jump start my running in 3 months. Turns out I’m a great runner, so I must have been a great runner all this time and just need a therapeutic dose of steroids to show that I had chemical deficiency that easily solved it. Now life is much more fair for me. Look, once your life depends on a decision you know was a trade off (you feel entitled to wha…

>And the last thing I want to add is, you won’t have fun doing any of the above stuff. It’s never going to be fun and it never is fun for anyone. The only joy you’ll get is at the very end when you succeed. You still haven't understood the perspective of people with ADHD. They know all of this intellectually (and depending on age) they have tried more systems, mental models, techniques, strategies, tricks and hacks t…

You can read my comments in this thread. Trust me I know exactly what it’s like having a midterm coming up and staring at a book and being unable to read one word, on the verge of flunking out, and realizing your life is not going to amount to shit. Which means, I was procrastinating even when the consequences and stakes were high.

Either I was reckless, or I had no conception of the magnitude of the consequences. Is that a concentration issue?

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#244

Post by WhompingWindows »

hereme888 wrote: post #233

So this is basically Viloxazine, a drug no longer sold because it was unprofitable as an antidepressant, and now repurposed as a non-stimulant drug for ADHD. It appears to be cardiotoxic, working like a Tricyclic Antidepressant (TCA), yet less so than imipramine. It works by increasing levels of norepinephrine, altering some serotonin transmission, and maybe reducing some neurotransmitter release in the frontal corte…

It will most likely be "non inferior" to the standard of care, since that is the bar for new drugs to clear in any disease area. The issue with that designation is the FDA could compare it to stimulants or to the non-stimulant atomextine, which like Viloxazine is a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.

Atomoxetine was preferentially used in those cases with added anxiety, since it was found to have anxiolytic effects. Stimulants were sometimes not recommended for anxious patients, since they might contribute to anxiety and sleeplessness for some kids.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#245

Post by WhompingWindows »

myrandomcomment wrote: post #119

I have always struggled to explain what having ADHD is like to others. I finally settled on “imagine going through life with this constant sound in the back of your head like a fuzzy AM radio station that you can never tune in and also can never just ignore killing any ability to focus. Taking the drug to treat it (time released methylphenidate in my case) allows me to tune that station in like it was a perfect CD wi…

Thank you for your post! Your description matches what I've read, that dopaminergic function is like a bell curve. If you're already in the center of the curve, stimulants will push you over into dysfunction; whereas, if you're at the left tail of the curve, stimulants will push you to typical.

If 5 college freshmen take Ritalin together, four may be bouncing off the walls and struggling to direct their attention, whereas the fifth may be having a revelation: is this what normal thinking is like? Did I have ADHD this whole time?

I've heard a few personal accounts of people sobbing their eyes out once their medication actually works...they think of all the times they struggled with ADHD, and that this pill could've helped them chart their desired course more smoothly.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#246

Post by __s »

jasonkester wrote: post #128
nerdbaggy wrote: post #17

Seems that lots of people only think ADHD people have a hard time paying attention. If it was that simple I would be so happy. Here are just a few of the things I struggle with. - Will power. People with ADHD struggle sooooo much with will power. It’s a constant struggle with everything in life and really wears you down. - Constantly putting on a fake front pretending you don’t have ADHD. - Rejection sensitivity - Fe…

How do you reconcile this with the observation that seemingly every single child in the United States is diagnosed with this condition and prescribed drugs to treat it? Watching from Europe, where roughly nobody is diagnosed with it nor prescribed drugs to treat it, I’m always baffled, fascinated and horrified watching Americans talk about it.

It only makes matters worse

I was diagnosed with ADHD, prescribed ritalin. My mother opted me out of being medicated. It wasn't necessary for me, because I shouldn't've been diagnosed with ADHD. This was in early 2000s when ADHD was being applied to any kid with today's spectrum-like behavior

But that doesn't mean others don't have a real struggle with this

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#247

Post by ericb »

jasonkester wrote: post #137
bendmorris wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that by: >People thinking it’s not a real condition. the person you're responding to meant statements like yours: >Frankly, the symptoms you describe apply to pretty much everybody, and are just the things one deals with in life. According to the NIH, prevalence of severe ADHD in children is around 4% [1]. This differs by degree from "the things one deals with in life" for most people - it's an extreme vers…

You’re right. I didn’t like that bit of my comment, and was in the process of lopping it off when you were composing your reply. Apologies for not getting the edit done in time. Mostly I’m alarmed that so many parents are happy to put their small children on a lifetime supply of medicine for something that’s not immediately life threatening.

> Mostly I’m alarmed that so many parents are happy to put their small children on a lifetime supply of medicine for something that’s not immediately life threatening.

I don't think you get it. My son can either be on medicine, or he can fail middle school, and high school and be uneducated. If you're volunteering to sit next to him, and redirect him to his work every 3 minutes, or pay for someone to do it, by all means, let me know. At the same time, he's brilliant, and can solve any problem he puts his mind to, and he can do the actual work, if he can focus on it.

Maybe re-think this without the judgement--good parents aren't happy about doing this. They are just less unhappy than the alternative.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#248

Post by speeder »

bluecalm wrote: post #188
jasonkester wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you reconcile this with the observation that seemingly every single child in the United States is diagnosed with this condition and prescribed drugs to treat it? Watching from Europe, where roughly nobody is diagnosed with it nor prescribed drugs to treat it, I’m always baffled, fascinated and horrified watching Americans talk about it.

Coming from Europe (Poland) I hate the politicians for it. My school experience was a nightmare. My friendships went away. My apartment was always a mess. I couldn't hold to any project for more than a few weeks. I was struggling with simple everyday thing like paying bills (had electricity cut off several times because of missed bills), keeping any kind of commitment, making any kind of change in my life. I think th…

I am from Brazil, here Adderall got banned because medics were abusing it.

Long story short: Adderall has a side effect of making people lose weight. Didn't took long for Endocrinologists to start to "diagnose" ADHD and give Adderall like candy... Government couldn't find a way to fix that behaviour and decided to just ban it outright.

To be honest, despite the fact I have hypothyroidism alongside ADHD, I hate endocrionologists, I NEVER (really) met one that is 100% honest, they are always doing shady shit, never saw a medical branch so riddled with corruption and shenanigans.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#249

Post by WhompingWindows »

eric4smith wrote: post #13

The very worst problem with ADHD drugs is that they are overwhelmingly used to "treat" normal behavior with children - especially boys.

Where is your evidence of this overstated claim? "The very worst problem...overwhelmingly used to 'treat' normal behavior"...I studied ADHD pharmacology in graduate school and I saw no evidence of this in the dozens of articles I read. I think you lack a scientific understanding of ADHD.

Do you know WHY boys are more likely to be diagnosed as "combined type" ADHD and treated than girls? It is primarily because their motor-dominant brains develop differentially: the dopaminergic systems in their motor cortex make them move more and disrupt more than girls.

Girls, whose motor-cortex and executive function develop differently, are much more likely to be the primarily-inattentive subtype, which leads to day dreaming and aloofness, but not to the disruptive behaviors that boys with ADHD exhibit. Therefore, girls fly under the radar and are missed because boys simply move more and have less control over their movement.

Nevertheless, your post is a bit reckless in my opinion. Add some real scientific evidence to your generalization. These are children who have less friends, abuse drugs more, are more likely to have depression or anxiety, and are far more likely to kill themselves. This neurodevelopmental disorder really matters, it's not a flippant case of drugging boys whose parents didn't raise them right.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#250

Post by drewbug01 »

zaarn wrote: post #136
jasonkester wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you reconcile this with the observation that seemingly every single child in the United States is diagnosed with this condition and prescribed drugs to treat it? Watching from Europe, where roughly nobody is diagnosed with it nor prescribed drugs to treat it, I’m always baffled, fascinated and horrified watching Americans talk about it.

I've heard this so often, even from family. "It sounds like things everybody has to deal with". It's infinitely more difficult with ADHD. I use phone apps to remind myself of everyday things and track my shopping lists. This may sound normal but it's a coping strategy and when it's gone I am unable to function as a normal human being. I cannot go shopping without a shopping list because I will grab things I think I n…

> I require an app to remind me of doing that when it is not a workday, as my usual routine of going to work and going to bed early for a workday involves it. On weekends or vacation, I do not remember on my own to do basic things like that

My personal version of this hell is remembering to take the meds at all: if I don't have the "getting ready for work" routine (which is when I take my meds) ... I usually forget to take my meds. In fact, this just reminded me that I told my doctor I was going to try and download an app to try to remember to take them.

Yay for not being able to remember things!

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