Here are some of the strikes I see against ADHD medication when not absolutely indicated:
-Something like a 50% higher ADHD diagnoses for children in the youngest quartile of their grade.
-A thinner frontal cortex in kids with ADHD compares disturbingly with the thinner frontal cortex of many highly gifted children, and perhaps often with the same symptoms. However the trajectory of the HG+ child is to rapidly gain cortical thickness until it is well above average in thickness around age 11 (if memory serves) then it thins back down some.
-Stunted or delayed average growth for ADHD kids on medication (~1" shorter after three years)
-The strongest outcomes pair cognitive therapies with medication. Taking a kid who has only had medication intervention off of the medication leaves them back at the starting line with no coping skills.
-Often brains grow resistant to psychotropic medications such as reducing the number of receptors for the given medication. Or a brain will cut back on producing its natural alternative. Or when the medication is a receptor blocker, the brain may ramp up production of the chemical for that receptor.
