Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Reading Disability, Executive Functioning, ADHD

Thanks, aculady, got a link?

Wow- great info. My boy is so accident prone and clumsy and not the most athletic kid out there . Except for soccer- he really excels at that for some reason. (Hubby and I are both very athletic- so this boggles our minds.) I wonder if this is part of the reason. Kinda curious how he will be effected if/when we decide to use medication.

LinCO - both developmental paeds we have discussed our DDs ADD with consider CAPD to be real, but a symptom of ADD and not an independent disorder. At the very least they are very commonly co-morbid, as are dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, etc. And certainly I have spoken to numerous parents of gifted kids with ADD whose CAPD symptoms just disappeared with medication for the ADD. Likewise dramatic improvements in handwriting and general motor planning.

The first study has only 12 children and the second has only 25 children. There are no really good, long-term studies showing long-term academic gains in kids who take these meds. There is evidence that in some kids, it probably makes them prone to manic-depression or other types of mental illness.

I didn't post the studies to support or to oppose medication - the issues surrounding the decision to medicate or not to medicate at any given point in time are complex and need to be based on a thorough assessment of indivdual needs. I posted them in response to an observation about stimulant meds that were already being given to a particular child improving motor functioning while medicated. They are known to do that. No one is disputing that they are also known to have numerous negative side effects in some people.

A really good book to read on this topic is Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker. It has a nice chapter on medicating children for ADD/ADHD.

This discussion brings to mind a recent heated debate between experts regarding use of medication. The NYT published a very pointed attack on the use of ADHD meds by an eminent child psychologist here

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/o...-drugs-dont-work-long-term.html?emc=eta1

which was heatedly disputed point by point by the Child Mind Institute here

http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/2012-1-30-adhd-righting-record-stimulant-medications

and by an ADHD specialist/author here

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/....html?soid=1101166017098&aid=uVUynsaBiQ4

My favorite response was from a Scientific American blogger and ADHD parent:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/02/23/adhd-backlash-to-the-backlash/

It is critical to read it yourself and draw your own conclusions but the head of the Child Mind Institute points out that a 2+ year controlled study of ADHD meds would involve denying children in the control group drugs that are medically indicated for a medical condition long term and that this would not pass ethics requirements for medical studies. Hence, no long term controlled studies will probably be undertaken on this topic.

Of greatest interest to me as a mom was a study mentioned in the Scientific American blog about co-occurence of ADHD and substance abuse in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry which can be found here

http://www.jclinpsychiatry.com/pcc/pccpdf/v05s05/v64s1101.pdf

This study found 75% rate substance abuse/dependence (not recreational use) for unmedicated 15 year olds with ADHD, 25% rate among medicated 15 year olds with ADHD and 20% rate among the non-ADHD control group. Interesting reading.