It might feel good at first, but repeated abuse of stimulants can: Increase blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature. Decrease appetite and sleep. Cause feelings of hostility and paranoia. Want to see how abusing Adderall could affect you physically and academically? Encourage your child to come to you with any medication-related concerns so you can work together to solve the problem or find another treatment option. A child still needs to behave like a child.
Here is a list of questions you should ask when your child begins medication therapy, changes dosage, or starts taking a different medication:. Heininger and Sharon K. Most children and adults taking medication for ADHD will experience at least a few side effects. Sometimes, side effects go away after the first few weeks on the medication. You may also be able to eliminate or reduce unpleasant side effects with a few simple strategies.
Loss of appetite. To deal with reduced appetite, eat healthy snacks throughout the day and push dinner to a later time when the medication has worn off. If getting to sleep is a problem, try taking the stimulant earlier in the day. If you or your child is taking an extended-release stimulant, you can also try switching to the short-acting form.
Also avoid caffeinated beverages, especially in the afternoon or evening. Stomach upset or headaches. Mood changes. If medication is causing irritability, depression, agitation, or other emotional side effects, try lowering the dose. Moodiness may also be caused by the rebound effect, in which case it may help to overlap the doses or switch to an extended-release medication. If troublesome side effects persist despite your best efforts to manage them, talk to your doctor about adjusting the dose or trying a different drug.
Many people respond better to the long-acting or extended release formulations of ADHD medication, which build gradually in the bloodstream and then wear off slowly. This minimizes the ups and downs caused by fluctuating medication levels and causes less of a rebound effect, where symptoms return, often worse than before, as the drug wears off.
Neurodevelopmental Disorders. American Psychiatric Association. Kemper, A. Wolraich, M. Pediatrics, 4. Huang, H. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 28 2 , — Adler, L. Management of ADHD in adults. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 63 Suppl 12, 29— Volkow, N. JAMA, 10 , — This holiday season alone, millions of people will turn to HelpGuide for free mental health guidance and support. So many people rely on us in their most difficult moments.
Can we rely on you? All gifts made before December 31 will be doubled. Cookie Policy. What you need to know, including common side effects and tips for taking them responsibly. Stimulant medications for ADHD Stimulants are the most common type of medication prescribed for attention deficit disorder.
This isn't true. These drugs will help anyone focus and pay attention. Giving stimulants to a kid with ADHD is more like giving a child with a learning disability more time on a test -- and advantage that might help anybody, but helps that child more -- than fixing his brain.
Given that, it's understandable that kids desperate for an academic advantage would turn to stimulants. Why shouldn't they? One reason is safety. The effect of long-term stimulant use on people's cardiovascular health remains an issue of pretty heated debate. For the kids who are getting pills from their buddies instead of their psychiatrists, things are more dangerous, partly because they use too much, often snorting them instead of taking them by mouth.
It doesn't take a huge dose of stimulant to increase focus, but a high school kid isn't likely to ramp up slowly. And these drugs can be addictive. Another is simply that we as a society don't like the idea of someone using a drug to get an advantage. It might actually be that in one way the test-takers, not the psychiatric profession, have the right idea about these medicines: maybe they do work best for short-term use , not as a daily pill given over a lifetime.
But that still leaves the question of whether people should take medicines with risks and the potential for addiction in order to do well on tests. When is the risk worth it? Science News. ScienceDaily, 26 June University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved November 10, from www. In the classroom, parents and teachers say that medications like methylphenidate MPH can reduce Print Email Share.
Just a Game?
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