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The Ultimate Guide to ADHD MEveryethingd you neied cto knaow abtout miedoicationn options, achieving optimal benefits, and overcoming side effects. Includes MEDICATION TRACKING LOGS BY THE EDITORS OF WITH LAURIE DUPAR, PMHNP, AND WILLIAM DODSON, M.D. Expert eBook A trusted source of advice and information for families touched by attention-deficit disorder— and a voice of inspiration to help people with ADHD find success at home, at school, and on the job. additudemag.com/shop TERMS OF USE FOUNdER: Ellen Kingsley (1951-2007) Copyright © 2018 by New Hope Media. All rights reserved. Editor IN ChIEF: Susan Caughman No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted Editor: Wayne Kalyn in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, faxing, e-mailing, staff posting online, or by any information storage and retrieval consulting creativE Director: Joseph Caserto system, without written permission from the Publisher. consulting art Director: Ron Anteroinen Managing Editor: Eve Gilman All trademarks and brands referred to herein are the Reporter: Devon Frye SENIOR Digital Editor: Janice Rodden property of their respective owners. All references to SOCIAL MEdIA Editors: Rebecca Brown Wright, Penny Williams ADDitude magazine and ADDitudeMag.com are trade- Digital MARKETING Director: Anni Rodgers marks of New Hope Media. 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Peter Jensen, M.d. fied health-care professional or educational consultant Medical University of The REACH Institute for questions about your health and education, or the South Carolina New York, NY health and education of your child and family members. Charleston, SC harold Koplewicz, M.d. Do not disregard, avoid, or delay obtaining medical or Thomas E. Brown, Ph.d. New York University Medical School health related advice from your health-care professional University of Southern California New York, NY because of something you have read here. Los Angeles, CA Sandy Newmark, M.d. William dodson, M.d. Osher Center for If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your Dodson ADHD Center Integrative Medicine, doctor or 911 immediately. ADDitude does not recom- Greenwood Village, CO University of California San Francisco, CA mend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, Ross W. Greene, Ph.d. procedures, opinions, or other information that may be Lives in the Balance Michele Novotni, Ph.d. mentioned in ADDitude publications or websites. Reliance Portland, ME The Villages, FL on any information provided by ADDitude is solely at your Edward M. hallowell, M.d. Roberto Olivardia, Ph.d. own risk. The Hallowell Center Harvard Medical School Sudbury, MA Boston, MA Stephen P. hinshaw, Ph.d. J. Russell Ramsay, Ph.d. University of California Perelman School of Medicine Berkeley, CA University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Peter Jaksa, Ph.d. ADD Center of America Jerome Schultz, Ph.d. Chicago, IL Harvard Medical School Boston, MA The Ultimate Guide to ADHD MedicationEverything you need to know about medication options, achieving optimal benefits, and overcoming side effects. Get the Right Diagnosis (and Treatment) The numbers tell the story: According to the Centers for Disease Con - trol, 6.4 million children ages 4-17 have been diagnosed with ADHD, and it doesn’t go away after puberty. Roughly two-thirds of children with ADHD grow up to be adults with ADHD. Today, about 8 million American adults have ADHD, though only a quarter of those have a formal diag - nosis. The good news is that there are safe, effective treatments for the disorder. The best ADHD treatment strategies are multimodal ones— combinations of several different, complementary approaches that work together to reduce symptoms. For many people, this ideal combination includes diet, exercise, meditation, and/or ADHD stimulants. Experts know, from years of research and many studies, that stimulant medica- tions are effective. They improve the core symptoms of ADHD—impul- sivity, hyperarousal, and distractibility—in some 70-80 percent of the people who take them. Nail Down the Diagnosis A thorough evaluation and correct diagnosis are the foundation of 3 successful treatment. A faulty diagnosis leads to treatments that don’t improve symptoms or, in some cases, make them worse. Doctors fre- quently mistake ADHD for other disorders—generalized anxiety dis - order, depression, bipolar disorder, and even OCD—so it is important that your doctor use all the tools available to assess and diagnose the correct condition. Diagnosis should include the following steps: taking a medical history to rule out physical causes of the symptoms; meeting the symptom guidelines of ADHD in the DSM-5; interviewing key people in the pa- tient’s life about behaviors; filling out rating scales to compare those behaviors with the normative average; and assessing for co-occurring conditions, such as depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, and oth - ers. Studies suggest that 50 to 90 percent of children, and approximately 85 percent of adults, diagnosed with ADHD have one or more co-occur- ring conditions. Medication and Dose When you and your doctor are confident of the diagnosis, and you de- cide to start medication, understand that you must work closely with your doctor to find the optimal medication and dose. There are two classes of stimulants—methylphenidate and amphetamine. Every per- son has a biological preference for one or the other class, but it is only through trial and error—taking methylphenidate and then, in separate trial, taking amphetamine—that a doctor can determine which one will work best. Stimulants do not work for 20-30 percent of people diag - nosed with ADHD. When they don’t, a doctor will consider using a non- stimulant medication to improve symptoms. The optimal dose of an ADHD stimulant is not determined by age, weight, FREE Download: gender, or severity of symptoms. It is determined by three factors that 9 Rules for Using ADHD are unique to each individual: how efficiently the medication is absorbed Medications Safely in the GI tract, how efficiently the medication is metabolized, and how http://additu.de/safemeds efficiently the medication passes across the blood-brain barrier. Experts agree that the right dose of stimulant will change throughout a patient’s life. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends ad - justing a child’s dose once a year to achieve symptom management. After age 16, a person usually settles into an optimal dose, which, in most cases, does not change for the rest of his or her life. When thinking about starting a on ADHD medication, it is key that a The Ultimate Guide to ADHD Medication from the editors of 4 patient know what to expect from various medication choices and what to do when the medication doesn’t produce positive results. (“Under- standing ADHD Medications,” on pages 8 and 9, will give you a step-by- step overview of the process of using ADHD medications.) How to Monitor a Medication’s Effectiveness After you start taking an ADHD medication, you want to make sure that symptoms are improving without side effects—mood changes, head- aches, nausea, poor appetite, and so on. Monitoring behavior and physi- cal symptoms is key to knowing when a medication is working and when it isn’t. (The best tools for monitoring medication are the “Home Medication Log” and the “Observation Log” on pages 17 and 18 of this booklet.) This is especially important for younger children who can’t articulate what they are feeling, but also for adults who may not realize how their symptoms impact others. Expert WEBINAR: Remember that the optimal dose will probably need to be adjusted as a patient grows and matures. Hormonal changes alter the effectiveness How to Use and Adjust of ADHD medication. Stimulants Safely http://additu.de/ Below are the most common signs that a medication is doing what it management should. You may notice other signs unique to your specific challenges. If you’re not sure which improvements to look for, stick to these guide- lines. If you see them even if some side effects remain, you are on the way to optimizing the medication’s effectiveness. > Sustained focus. If the medication is starting to work, you will be able to focus for longer periods of time than you used to. This doesn’t mean hyperfocus or “zombie focus”—just a sustained focus that you can direct to where you want it to go, and that makes you more productive. > Less impulsivity. If your medication is working, you’ll notice less im- pulsivity—both physical and verbal. You will interrupt people or jump out of your seat less often. You will notice that your thoughts are less impulsive, too—you are less distracted by “brain chatter.” > Improved mood. When ADHD medication is optimized, a person typically has an improved overall mood. He is less stressed, with less anxiety—usually shown by higher productivity and fewer social challenges. > Greater attention to detail. Details become more important—instead The Ultimate Guide to ADHD Medication from the editors of 5 of skipping a step in directions, you will catch small mistakes before they happen.