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ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
71–80 of 115 posts
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#72Science reporting in the news sure is broken. Do enough studies and eventually you'll happen upon one that gives the wrong (and newsworthy) answer, just by chance.
Here are some studies asking the same question that weren't mentioned, and their reported effect on academic performance (in order of my encountering them on scholar.google.com):
1. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pha/9/2/163/ (positive)
2. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ccp/70/2/320/ (positive)
3. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1993.... (positive)
4. http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1993-46419-001 (positive in short term, neutral in long term)
5. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00925819 (positive)
I stopped there, but I think the trend is obvious. One thing I think is worth noting is that the short-term studies very directly measure academic performance by actually observing the patients. The long-term study cited in TFA - and I suspect most other long-term studies - relied on questionnaires instead. It seems probable to me that the problem here is that questionnaires are simply too noisy an information source to obtain a statistically significant result, given the additional noise created by overdiagnosis.
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#73Each time a study comes out and people will link it to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and that it is worthless ... for me it isn't. Without my meds I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I wouldn't be able to get work done. At one point it got so bad at work that I was afraid I was going to get fired since I couldn't focus on any single task at hand…
What many people don't understand is the stress people with ADD are exposed to. Especially when they're smart. Imagine having a porsche in your driveway, but for reasons you can only use the first gear. No matter how hard you push the pedal to the metal, you won't be as fast as you want the car to go. Plus if you keep going full throttle in the first gear eventually you'll break something. Sounds depressing, doesn't…
Wow, that porsche analogy is so apt. That's exactly how I feel most of the time.
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#74[deleted]
It would be very silly to argue that Adderall is the solution for everyone with ADHD. Some people will experience negative side effects, and those people shouldn't take it. But that kind of experience is incredibly rare.
Personally, I find that Adderall in particular improves my focus, but does little to improve my willpower, so I tend to focus very effectively, but not on the things I need to focus on.
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#75[deleted]
How much were you taking?
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed because no one who isn't a licensed psychiatrist knows anything about neuroscience, drug mechanisms or interactions, coping strategies, physiology or mechanism. Neuroscientists, pharmacists, biochemists, none of these people could possibly have any relevant expertise. Only licensed psychiatrists are worth listening to.
As far as telling someone to stop their prescribed medication, then yes, the prescribing physician is the only one to listen to. But perhaps you are expert enough and have enough knowledge about his medical history that he should listen to you instead?
I have 0.01 as much of a problem with this proposition as with your previous one. That is an excellent heuristic for most people to use.
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honest question: could your success be at all attributed to placebo? IOW, is there any question at all as to whether or not you could have made a conscious decision to "buckle down" and have met the same result? I fear for myself that when facing similar hardship that acquiescing to meds could just be "dealing with the situation" and not properly processing what the actual hardship is, why it exists, and how else it…
> Honest question: could your success be at all attributed to placebo? IOW, is there any question at all as to whether or not you could have made a conscious decision to "buckle down" and have met the same result? I'm 27 now. I began taking ADHD medication when I was 21. With the exception of methamphetamine (yes, it's actually an old, crude ADHD treatment) I believe I've taken every FDA-approved ADHD drug there is -…
This makes me wonder if software could help. Clippy says "You seem distracted, shouldn't you get back on point?"
(I recognize this comment is unlikely to be helpful, but I'm curious about the state of the art.)
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#78Each time a study comes out and people will link it to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and that it is worthless ... for me it isn't. Without my meds I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I wouldn't be able to get work done. At one point it got so bad at work that I was afraid I was going to get fired since I couldn't focus on any single task at hand…
What many people don't understand is the stress people with ADD are exposed to. Especially when they're smart. Imagine having a porsche in your driveway, but for reasons you can only use the first gear. No matter how hard you push the pedal to the metal, you won't be as fast as you want the car to go. Plus if you keep going full throttle in the first gear eventually you'll break something. Sounds depressing, doesn't…
I felt the same way, and in the last few years growing up has done much to shift my brain to the next gear. Once I knew what concentration felt like I was able to recreate that feeling and focus. No medication involved.
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#79> If its drugs demonstrably improve attention, focus and self-control, why wouldn't grades improve as well? Because academic performance depends far more on luck than on skill. That's why the whole standardized testing is silly. It precisely measures pretty much random variable.
Nope, then good grades wouldn't be repeatable!
Re: ADHD Drugs Don't Boost Kids' Grades, Studies Find
#80The data used in making this statement is utterly skewed. I defer to Kuhn to explain why - how many variables were accounted for in any study supporting this conclusion? This doesn't have to be epistemologically far removed - there are real variables I'm sure were not accounted for. For example, the DEA has been on campaign for 2 years to subvert the FDAs authority - where exactly did funding come from and by whom? Also, one has to consider the rapidly shifting economic climate we live in - certainly that would have an effect on performance if it is weighing on a student's mind... Problems with the scope and geolocation of participants are clear. And the article writer forgot to address what is placed at the end of every published scientific study - it's limitations and how the study could have been better. And then there still are all those epistemological problems (infinite variables) still sitting there, glaring....