unless you require acute trauma care, look away from western medicine for solutions to your problems
And what "non-western" medicine would you suggest for ADHD?
Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
81–90 of 327 posts
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#82Quoted post unavailable.
It's more horrifying to me that HN has turned into a kind of place where people will confidently assert their judgment something they have no knowledge about. My son has ADHD. There are other ADHD cases in the family, so we knew that could be the case with him, but we waited until he was in middle school to even try to check, because we didn't want him to "depend on drugs", as the trope goes. We got the diagnosis fro…
In my opinion it's normal for some kids or people to be distracted easily or have more energy than others. They require more attention. Also a child's brain is not fully developed. Why do we expect all kids to be great at focusing? Do you think the focus is worth the reported short and long-term side effects[0]?
[0] https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=aff...
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
The study also does not claim to show a causal relationship.
As the parent of a child with ADHD that is medicated, it seems completely plausible that it could cause depression. When my kid has had too high a dosage (or accidentally takes a double dose) she's like a zombie, completely flat affect, and very little motivation. It's like it drains her life away. Part of the problem is that it's very difficult to get the right dosage for any given day because diet, metabolism, and…
I share this experience myself, in particular the dosage not providing a consistent effect day to day - every specialist I've spoken has told me this is weird and shouldn't be happening and yet it is so. Switching to staged release medication (Medikinet CR) has helped me too.
Unfortunately extended release Methylphenidate of any kind/brand is only partially covered by Dutch health insurance[1], and I'm certain the cost is prohibitive for people who might be less well off.
1: In essence, the government has determined that all Methylphenidate variants are equal, and so you can just take the cheapest instant release variant or else pay the difference out of your own pocket.
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#84Quoted post unavailable.
Nor is the structure of life after school. (Offices? 9 AM start times?) Kids with ADHD can go on to find incredible success in breaking the rules.
Sure they can, people endure and cope with a lot of things. That's a really low and unnecessarily painful approach though. They could do even better, do things they want to do, when they aren't hindered as much by the disorder.
I really think the comparison with glasses is apt, sure someone can squint their eyes and sit a bit closer at times, but why should they? We'd call it neglect to force someone to cope with bad eyesight without correction. Now you're talking about some ADHD kids doing well breaking the rules, so it's fine not to help? Eugh.
Do you know how many without help end up with incredible failure? Teen pregnancies, accidents, addiction, depression? It's more likely to be bad.
I really wish this discussion would revolve around helping, not potentially forcing coping.
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#85Considering stimulants (generally, but also specific ones) only work for a portion of people that try it, I find this very unsurprising. The increase isn't that big and probably down to a mixture of disappointment and side effects without the main effects. It's one of the main reasons doctors prescribe different stimulants. I've personally heard every mutation of "This one worked for me but the other one gave me bad…
You'd think by now we would have some way to test the concentration of various things (serotonin, norepinephrine, etc.) in the body BEFORE issuing medications that might modify them, and then measure such concentrations afterwards to get a better idea of what to use, rather than the current "try different things and rely solely on the subjective description provided by the (likely untrained and inarticulate) test sub…
Looks like the existing methods for measuring neurotrasmitter concentrations in the brain are pretty invasive, e.g. electrodes at best and the analysis of extracted tissue at worst. And I am not sure whether blood concentrations are indicative of anything.
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
The study also does not claim to show a causal relationship.
As the parent of a child with ADHD that is medicated, it seems completely plausible that it could cause depression. When my kid has had too high a dosage (or accidentally takes a double dose) she's like a zombie, completely flat affect, and very little motivation. It's like it drains her life away. Part of the problem is that it's very difficult to get the right dosage for any given day because diet, metabolism, and…
Extended release on the lower end of dosage + self-medicating with caffeine as a booster has been my go-to for about 15 years now. As an adult who's been taking it since middle school I can say that, while it's had its ups and downs, overall life is better with it than the times I've had to go without due to insurance disruptions or moving and having to find a new doctor who will prescribe it.
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
The study also does not claim to show a causal relationship.
As the parent of a child with ADHD that is medicated, it seems completely plausible that it could cause depression. When my kid has had too high a dosage (or accidentally takes a double dose) she's like a zombie, completely flat affect, and very little motivation. It's like it drains her life away. Part of the problem is that it's very difficult to get the right dosage for any given day because diet, metabolism, and…
Extended release (XR) is very nice, since it avoids the dopamine peaks and valleys caused by individual doses. I will say, generic XR is usually pretty crappy, since it basically breaks the dose into two parts. Name brand XR is better because they construct the pill to where there is an actual extended release. Which sucks, because it's super expensive as a result.
What I do instead is two lower-dose XR pills per day. The four hits over about 8 hours seems to work pretty well for me.
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#88In case people don’t know yet, doctors in some sense have an imperative to prescribe medication, regardless of whether it will destroy someone’s life. It’s almost considered mal practice not to prescribe SSRIs to a depressed person. But that prescription may follow them for life, most never get off them. Or don’t even know who they are when they get older, was that drugged person them or someone else?
doctors practice "medicine" not "health" :)
Not many people will accept a prescription of "stop eating shit all the time and exercise ", unfortunately.
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#89Quoted post unavailable.
It's more horrifying to me that HN has turned into a kind of place where people will confidently assert their judgment something they have no knowledge about. My son has ADHD. There are other ADHD cases in the family, so we knew that could be the case with him, but we waited until he was in middle school to even try to check, because we didn't want him to "depend on drugs", as the trope goes. We got the diagnosis fro…
Glasses are not drugs. That's not at all equivalent.
These drugs are altering brain chemistry and one's natural state so they fit into the unnatural environment that is school. It's horrifying to me that people are doing mental gymnastics to defend drugging kids who don't want to sit at a desk for hours every day memorizing useless information. If I was a kid today I'd fit the qualifications and be drugged to better fit into that environment. It's a crime that future generations will be rightly horrified by. Not unlike how we are starting to be horrified by the treatment of animals in factory farms. We're not treating these kids much better.
Re: Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more horrifying to me that HN has turned into a kind of place where people will confidently assert their judgment something they have no knowledge about. My son has ADHD. There are other ADHD cases in the family, so we knew that could be the case with him, but we waited until he was in middle school to even try to check, because we didn't want him to "depend on drugs", as the trope goes. We got the diagnosis fro…
In my opinion it's normal for some kids or people to be distracted easily or have more energy than others. They require more attention. Also a child's brain is not fully developed. Why do we expect all kids to be great at focusing? Do you think the focus is worth the reported short and long-term side effects[0]? [0] https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=aff...
It's not simply being "more distracted", that's oversimplification to the extent of belittling people who have the disorder.
Fully developed or not, ADHD doesn't disappear. Neither does it change if someone wants fully working executive functioning or control over their "train of thought".
The "focus" is worth it, especially if you make a fair comparison with those that weren't so lucky to get help.