If your child has recently been diagnosed with ADHD, you may be wondering what the best form of treatment is. As I've mentioned before, my ten year old son was diagnosed with ADHD in June 2003. Since that time he has been on medication. However, treating ADHD with medication is not an exact science. There is no magic way for your child's doctor to know which medication and what dose will work best. It is simply done by trial and error. In the past 4 1/2 years my son has been on three medications: Strattera , Adderall and Focalin XR . We were lucky to find the medication that worked best for him fairly quickly. He has been on Focalin for the past 3 years. He has no side effects and we are really pleased with it. I had no quams at all with placing him on medication after his diagnosis. His doctor and I discussed medication at length. I also did my own research and felt comfortable with taking that route. However, I am aware that some parents are not comfortable placing their child on medication right away, if at all. I've been asked what other forms of treatment are out there. Therefore, I did a little research and here is what I found out......
The following are non-drug treatments used for ADHD:
The following are non-drug treatments used for ADHD:
So, there you have it....other forms of treatment for ADHD. I also want to be fair and include accurate information about ADHD medications as well. ADDitude Magazine has a wonderful article entitled ADHD Medications 101: Stimulant Strategies - Five rules for using ADHD medications safely and effectively. They also have another informative article entitled Using ADHD Medications Safely that I encourage you to take a look at. They also have an article entitled Top 10 Questions about ADHD Drugs... Answered! . For a complete list of stimulants currenlty used to treat ADHD, visit ADHD-Made-Simple.com. And, for a list of non-stimulant medications, visit ncamp.com . No matter which side of the fence you're on, you should definitely read ADD Drugs or No Meds? . It's a must read article for any parent facing the medication/no medication question for treating their ADHD child.