Hi everyone,
I posted this chart in a specific thread, but thought it might be useful information for many people on here that want a good, concise list of ADHD medications, doses and how long they work. I have referred to it many times over the last year as we tried to find the best meds for my 7 year old son.
I hope it is helpful for others as well.
ADHD medication- Guide to Treatments:
http://www.caddra.ca/pdfs/Medication_Chart_English_CANADA.pdf
This is an answer to prayer. Thank you! We are just starting out on this journey. Our son has a previous diagnosis of Apraxia of Speech. I am nervous about taking any stimulates because I have read they can hamper speech progress for kids that have a speech delay. But the stimulates are being highly suggested by the Dev Peds I am working with. Any friendly parent to parent advice?
We had great success with Adderall for the first year with my son. But as we had to increase the dose, he started suffering from anxiety. But there is a strong family history of anxiety, so my son is very susceptible to that. From what I know, stimulants work very well for a lot of kids.
Because of the anxiety, we have switched my son to a non-stimulant, Stratterra. This drug takes much longer to see positive effects because it works in a different way than the stimulant meds. However, recent studies show that it can be very effective (especially in kids with anxiety) if you wait long enough to see the effects. Typically, it takes 3 months or longer to get the full benefits.
We started my son on a low dose 5 weeks ago, but have just reached the regular, therapeutic dose in the last week. I hope we start to see more improvement in the next month or so.
ADHD is such a complicated disorder and it is often seen concurrently with many other disorders (anxiety, OCD, Autism spectrum) so each kid is really a unique case. It may take some time to figure out what works for your child.
Hope that long answer helps some!
I also just found this information on the following website:
I would argue with what they say about Strattera being less effective though. My pediatrician has also said that the most recent research shows that the non-stimulants just take much longer to become effective, and most parents and doctors think they are not effective because they only wait a few weeks before they decide if the medication is working or not.
http://www.stutteringhelp.org/adhd-and-stuttering
The treatment strategy with the strongest scientific support for ADHD continues to be stimulant medications. The most common stimulant medications include Ritalin, Adderall, and Dexedrine. They are effective in approximately 70%-80% of cases.
Several recent case studies have suggested that the use of stimulant medications may actually increase stuttering. As a result, non-stimulant medications such as Strattera have been tried when ADHD coexists with stuttering. Results suggest that these non-stimulant medications may actually reduce stuttering when combined with speech therapy (Burd & Kebeshian, 1991; Lavid, Franklin, & McGuire,1999; Riley & Riley, 2000). However, the non-stimulant medications do not appear to be as effective as the stimulant medications in handling the primary symptoms of ADHD.
Thank you for posting this!