ADHD medication despite melatonin success?

[BlueLadybirds]

Long story short: 10 year old ds with ADHD diagnosis and query ODD.

At his last appointment his paediatrician drew up a medication plan (we have tried everything else up to this point). The plan was to try melatonin for several weeks and then trial ADHD medication once we knew the impact (if any) of the melatonin.

The melatonin has transformed him from an angry, defiant, rude, and generally incredibly challenging child, to a (for the most part) much calmer, far less impulsive, thoughtful and polite child. The change in him is just incredible- I'm tearing up just typing this.

He still has his moments, can be quick tempered and lash out if he feels wronged in any way, can be difficult in the evenings and in any sort of exciting/new environment, but we couldn't be happier with the effect the melatonin has had. He has a 121 LSA at school and they have reported that he hasn't put a foot wrong since the start of term.

Despite the huge improvements the paediatrician wants to go ahead with a Medikinet trial.

I'm not against medicating ADHD at all but I'm feeling slightly uneasy about giving him the medication when the bulk of his symptoms seem to have been brought under control by better quality/length of sleep. Does he even have ADHD? Is it more of a sleep disorder after all?

It almost feels greedy to want an even more 'improved' version of him We are very happy indeed with our well rested version.

Has anyone else been in this situation? Would we be foolish to pass up an opportunity to try the Medikinet; it's only a trial so could be stopped at any point if it didn't yield significant benefits to him. I just feel very uneasy about it.

It sounds as though a lot of the issues were down to sleep - have all of the ‘adhd’ traits disappeared/significantly been reduced? If so, it may be worth questioning if it is indeed a sleep disorder.

Even more importantly, I don’t understand how using your child for a trial for this new med would be of any use at this stage, given that most of his symptoms have greatly improved. How would they know what is down to the melatonin, and what is due to the new med? In terms of research, surely a better use of the new med would be on a child still experiencing all the adhd symptoms? I think I would question the paed’s intentions in wanting to go ahead with such a trial.

Sorry, I perhaps wasn't clear; it's not a trial for a new drug, we are simply trialling a regular ADHD drug on my child to see if it helps him.

Ah sorry bluebirds, I misunderstood! . If you feel comfortable doing it then it could be worth a try. I just know that with my ASD son, melatonin enables him to actually get to sleep but it doesn’t have any effect on his behaviour.

Don’t do the medication if you feel it’s not the best time to do it right now. You can always ask them to hold off on the medication for 6 months... keep him on Melatonin and see if you notice a difference.