On Sat, 20 Jan 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I am in a nagging mood tonigth (just returned from Chicago from a one
> day buisness trip) but it is key to differentiate between ADD and
> ADHD. ADD does not respond to Ritilin. It is an amorphous entity and
> is much more overdiagnosed than ADHD. They are not the same thing.
Ah. I hear about kids being medicated for ADD, specifically ADD and not
ADHD, and if it doesn't respond to Ritalin, then medicating for it with
Ritalin is a bad thing.
If ADD is really bad, antidepressants may help. (I know one person that
has ADD and not ADHD and antidepressants help in that case.) But they
might not help. So I'd still try some other non-medicinal treatments for
ADD before I went to any meds. And now that I have the info Bob has
provided, if I have a kid diagnosed with ADD and *not* ADHD, I'm not going
to let a school tell me that Ritalin is the answer. (I'd also talk with
the kid's pediatrician before I did anything else.)
To be fair, I do know a kid who has been on meds for ADHD, and they have
him off of them during the summer. A few years ago, it got to where by
the end of the summer he couldn't stand *himself* and was glad to get back
on the meds. I just object to medicating when there isn't any evaluation
besides the school just saying "Your kid has to go on Ritalin, period."
Julia
