Meds for ADHD

[silverdarling]

After years of faffing around with random appts with numerous professionals DS aged 12 has finally been diagnosed with ASD with ADHD. Consultant immediately came in with we can treat the ADHD with meds. We have another appt with CAMHS on Wed and need to say whether we want to try medication. I have very mixed feelings. Just worked through a huge info pack they gave me but no meds info at all! I don'f want to be rushed into this.Any experience?

I have no experience of my child taking meds but I am in the process of considering them myself (for ds I mean!) I also have mixed feelings but think I have tried every trick in the book and on the net and the ADHD is clouding his chances of learning coping strategies for anything else due to the hyperkinetic impulsivity.

I have been offered a parenting course and I have been told ADHD children need to be parented differently (you dont say!) but he also has AS and sensory processing disorder too and it is hard.

Of course I have to re-refer my DS as the AS side of it meant camhs closed his file as they "dont doo" Autism. I would be very interested on what your meeting reveals out of curiosity for mine :)

I have read a lot of positives to medication that have helped children in a good way. But it is a very personal decision to make x

Thanks for your reply. One of the concerns is that if we dont go with meds they will sign him off from CAMHS after it taking two years to get here. In our area they do do autism, but we waited from Jan- June for an appt after finally being referred by the Ed Psych. The ADHD bit was rather thrown in at the last minute and it is the inattention in class side of ADHD, no concerns at all with hyperactivity.Feel very torn but will have to keep on frantically googling.

Even if CAMHS don't sign him off you might find that all you get from them is a regular prescription and no other support. Depending on your NHS area, there isn't much help available for ASD or ADHD so apart from medication you could find yourself on your own in terms of interventions. Might be worth asking your service what they can offer your son to support his ADHD as well as meds.

Just to add, I'd spent years banging my head against the wall with behaviour management strategies but they had little impact until ds got his ADHD dx and was prescribed drugs. As coff33pot says, the meds help the brain to focus and process what they're being taught about self-management. In ds's case the meds were an essential part of his progress but not the whole cure. There are still definite issues that we continue to work on with other tools.

I have been offered Meds for my almost 6 year old with ADHD, ASD traits and SPD as well - so am interested in this thread.

my experience is that once I made the decision to try the med's it was very apparent that my DS ASD and ADHD was more able to unscramble his thought's and focus on 1 thing at a time.
My DS is more hyper of his mind than physically (though this is also a big part of things) so with him having multiple thoughts and not able to identify the relevant one he needs to focus on, it was almost impossible to engage him and achieve relevant responses.

The med's have allowed him to be able to focus and learn and his concentration is around 2-3 minutes on task now, where before he had barely any ability to unscramble thought's, identify, digest, sort and respond appropriately iyswim.

We couldn't manage without med's now so the risk's involved need to be taken for him. He is almost 12yrs now and knows he needs the med's and actively will seek 'top up' tablet's when he feels he needs them.

The benefit's to my DS have far outweighed the risk's and the side effect's are a necessary part of the management.
I do worry about the long term effects and there are no substantial evidences about this yet (that I know of)that have been able to conclude this in a factual way....one way or the other....though I am fairly sure that there will be long term side effects which will manifest and become apparent but I still feel that the meds are (for now), his best chance of learning, coping and making sense of his world....

Good to get these replies.The general feeling was that CAMHS would not be able to offer much other help as he is too old for their support groups etc I guess I am worried about DS becoming more zombie like on meds, he is definitely not hyper active in any way more dreamy and slow moving. The CAMHS team

The medication should'nt make him like a zombie. Its a stimulant so will wake up the part of he brain that doesn't function properly, the bit that that helps us concentrate, regulate behaviour etc. The dosage migt need tweaking in the early days to get it right, but the meds are def worth a go. If it doesn't work out he can just come off them, there is no lasting effect . We have seen significant progress with our son, he is now 8. The meds are'nt a magic wand for everything but still worth having than not.

Thanks, sorry, last post got cut short. I am thinking we might give meds a try but as we are about to go on holiday ask to start in September which gives a little more time for research.