Medications for ADD & ADHD
There are many medications that a patient can take. There are two main types of medications. Stiumulants and non-stimulants. Under the non-stimulants classicfication there is the drug Strattera. Under the stimulants classicfication there is Adderal XR, Concerta, Vyvanse, Strattera, Metadate-CD, Focalin and many more. Click on the links below for more information.
Monitoring - Some drugs require minimal monitoring and some do not. Some drugs require blood tests, others require blood tests and EKGs, others require heart rate and blood pressure to be monitored. What drug requires the least amount of monitoring? Ritalin and Dexedrine. Cylert requires blood tests ever 6 months. Tricyclics require blood tests and EKGs to figure out the right dose. Effexor and Clonidine require blood pressure and pulse checks.
Number of dosages per day - Some of these drugs have to be administered three times a day or more. That means someone has to be very, very attentive to getting the drug in the child at school and usually after school, too. Almost no children that I see will reliably take their own medicine. Besides, some people really object to the stigma of having to go someplace at school and afterwards to get their medicines. The drugs which need to be given three times a day are Ritalin and Dexedrine (not Dexedrine Spansules). All the other drugs are once day or just morning and night.
Cost - If you do not have insurance, this is a major concern if you have bigger child. Since all these drugs are given on a weight basis, a big child can cost you a lot of money to treat with certain drugs. What is cheapest? Generic Ritalin and Clonidine. After that it is the tricyclics. The next cheapest is Ritalin.
In Summary - Each of these drugs has some good points and some bad points. There is no perfect drug. After the description of each drug is a chart which summarizes all of this.
You can not predict which drug will work in a child and which will not.
You can not predict which drug will cause side effects in a child and which will not.
