My 9 year old has ADD, and after having her tested I realized I have it too. I only wish my own parents had thought beyond the stereotype of ADD/ADHD being a hyper kid that can't sit still, my life may have been very different. We both take meds now and it's like another world. My house has never been cleaner for a start!
She displayed all of the symptoms back when we lived in Europe and she had never eaten an artificial color or flavor in her life (they are few and far between now but much harder to avoid). We tried elimination diets, she takes a multivitamin and omega 3, we tried martial arts, nothing worked like this. I was super wary of her being misdiagnosed, and terrified of medicating her, but the difference was noticeable almost right away. She is on the lowest dose of med, and we plan on trying to get her off them as soon as she feels she can handle it. But I'm glad we did it.
As for why there aren't studies on the efficacy of non-drug treatments, it's because drug companies pay for studies. There's no benefit to them funding any of those studies, so they don't get done. Sad but true.
