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Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#51

Post by kayodelycaon »

carlmcqueen wrote: post #26

I'm not a doctor, but as a family member and extended family member, I know that many bipolar children appear with ADHD in their early years and are treated with ADHD medication. They are treated with stimulants that have no effect on bipolar disorder.

This happened to me. Symptoms were noticeable when I was 5. First major depressive episode when I was 9. Was on stimulants from age 6 to 19. Didn't get properly diagnosed until I was 35.

Bipolar is often comorbid with ADHD. Stimulants can help, but can they also cause mania if used alone.

Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#52

Post by Djvacto »

citilife wrote: post #17
pflats wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The study also does not claim to show a causal relationship.

I was actually going to point that out. IMO from what I've seen of parents are that people who bring their children at a young-ish age to a therapist have a different issue. Especially "being to hyper" or "being unable to focus" have a different issue. Children are supposed to be outside moving 8-12 hours a day, have you seen puppies? They need something similar. Instead many parents give their children tablets, plop…

I started medication as an adult, lived in a home with two involved & present parents, never saw any doctor about ADHD until I was an adult, and was never an unhappy child.

Looking back, I clearly had ADHD, but since it's a condition that's unique and specific symptoms vary per person, I just happened to have mechanisms that worked and got lucky with how my brain patterns fit into school from Elementary - High School.

I had plenty of outdoor activity, and plenty of video games / computer use. Not that you mentioned it, but I also read fantasy/sci-fi books like they were daily papers, finished all of my incomplete homework in the morning while waiting for class to start, and was constantly multi-tasking in class (reading, doing homework for an upcoming class, or occasionally fidgeting).

My sample size is 1, but I have 4-5 diagnosed (either as kids or adults) close friends with similar stories.

Your comment takes some generally-well-known positive advice (exercise more, social interaction & supportive relationships are good, parenting kids is a big task that takes time & effort), and identifies some real problems we face today (social isolation, a lack of non-religious adult organizations, sedentary lifestyles) and uses it to disparage people with real, diagnosable conditions, and vilifying those who turn to medication for it.

I'm fine with how my life worked out, but I can't imagine being the kind of kid whose ADHD manifested in a different way that made school exponentially harder than it was for me, and being told that life-changing medicine, that let me participate in school or work just like everyone else does, is something I was given by mistake, or that I just had shit parents or should have played outside more.

Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#53

Post by user_7832 »

On a related by side note, methylphenidate has been shown to have mild neuroprotective effects (unlike some amphetamine derivatives) [1]. Interestingly dopamine can cause/be neurotoxic (presumably at high levels for a long time). [2]

(Both sources were quickly googled, I'm sure there are better papers.

1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2701286/ 2 - https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-59259-006-3_...

Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#54

Post by kayodelycaon »

sascha_sl wrote: post #18
kayodelycaon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The study is useful as something to watch for when using medication, not for avoiding medication. We already know starting antidepressants has an increased suicide risk.

Do I really seem so defensive? I really didn't mean to... I of course know that this is how it's meant to be used. But having gone through ADHD and trans healthcare I know everything that looks like ammo will be used as ammo. Even the things that explicitly state they are not ammo. By healthcare professionals and those that want to enact change on a higher level.

I was attempting to add on what you were saying. :)

Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#55

Post by Group_B »

code_duck wrote: post #27
avgDev wrote: post #20

I hate sounding like an alarmist....but something is extremely wrong with how physicians handle adverse reactions. So, I took a flouroquinolone and had a text book reaction. 50+ physicians later at mayo and other top US hospitals and I was gaslighted more than helped in any way. I am now in a group for sufferers and meet new people daily, who took the drug and the doctor completely dismissed their neurological issues…

Not a drug reaction, but I had a rather dreadful experience with Mayo, where I reported severe digestive problems which had led to me losing a great amount of weight over a few months while being constantly in pain (175 to 118, I’m 5’10”). They did some esophagus tests, they looked okay and Mayo wrote it off as “health anxiety”. It turns out I was actually developing a form of adult onset type 1 diabetes (LADA).

Was your blood sugar extremely high during that time before being diagnosed?

Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#56

Post by dan_quixote »

avgDev wrote: post #20

I hate sounding like an alarmist....but something is extremely wrong with how physicians handle adverse reactions. So, I took a flouroquinolone and had a text book reaction. 50+ physicians later at mayo and other top US hospitals and I was gaslighted more than helped in any way. I am now in a group for sufferers and meet new people daily, who took the drug and the doctor completely dismissed their neurological issues…

Primary care in the US is heavily reliant on the most basic heuristics to meet patient throughput requirements. Many clinics are operating at 15 min/patient. And no one wants to spend their free time charting the visit and making necessary orders (pharmacy, radiology, other providers, etc) if it can be avoided - so they try to cram it into that 15 min if possible. So they simply don't have time to ask the necessary questions and perform research.

Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#57

Post by cronix »

And then we stick them on antidepressants.

> Although only 8.6% of American males are on antidepressants at any given time, they seem much better represented as a percentage of mass shooters. Here are 39 mass shooters who were either on antidepressants at the time of their rampage, had abruptly quit taking their medication when they went on their spree, or had been prescribed antidepressants at some point in the past.

https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2019/09/37-mass-sho...

Michael Moore came to the same conclusion when researching for his movie, Bowling for Columbine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04UqzYOdGNs

These drugs can have serious side effects in x/1,000,000 people. What happens when you give them to tens of millions? You'll start to see those edge cases. Why didn't we have many of these mass shootings prior to 1990? When did we start mass dosing our kids? I think we have a lot more research to do, if anyone is actually willing, but you'd be going up against the big guys.

Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#58

Post by MereInterest »

ericd wrote: post #37
adastra22 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone with ADHD, who has a kid with ADHD, this dismissive attitude is really unwelcome. Inattentiveness is a real symptom with drastic life-altering effects for which medication is a godsend. Studies have shown that exposure to screen time does not result in ADHD. To be told "you're just a bad parent who lets their kid watch an iPad too much" is infuriating. (I'm trying to keep things civil per the site rules, b…

Maybe don't take it personally, I think they're saying that much of society is doing it wrong. EDIT: But yes, they’re also saying that many parents are doing it wrong, and they’re assigning much of the blame to parenting. My point was that when a huge percentage of parents are “doing it wrong”, maybe there’s some wider systemic thing at play. Like economic forces that make people work harder than they should if they…

No, there's some incredibly broad brush strokes in the parent comment.

* "Every child I know diagnosed with ADHD had parents who didn't want to deal with them."

* "look at the people you know on medication (or ask), look at the troubled children, etc. I guarantee you'll see the same trend"

* "likely have parents who just don't want / know how to deal with issues"

There's only a single phrase "not always the case, but it's a trend" that frames it as a societal issue on average, but that doesn't counter the incredibly general conclusions made by the poster.

Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

#60

Post by ihsw »

citilife wrote: post #17
pflats wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The study also does not claim to show a causal relationship.

I was actually going to point that out. IMO from what I've seen of parents are that people who bring their children at a young-ish age to a therapist have a different issue. Especially "being to hyper" or "being unable to focus" have a different issue. Children are supposed to be outside moving 8-12 hours a day, have you seen puppies? They need something similar. Instead many parents give their children tablets, plop…

This echos my experience to a T. I struggled as a single parent of a child and I hold myself responsible for them developing ADHD.

I did my best and most days I was too tired to give my child the attention and guidance they needed and he suffered needlessly. I resisted prescription medication for as long as possible until it became absolutely necessary. It works and there are side-effects, including symptoms that overlap with depression.

I am spending more time with my son (especially physical activities) and I hope someday he doesn't need methylphenidate.

I am likely still shadow-banned and nobody will see this message. I hope this message gets out and more single parents get the help they need.

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