Author: Sanford Newmark, MD

Finding the right type and dose of ADHD meds for each child is trial and error. Luckily, some techniques can help lessen the side effects. While there is a relatively scant amount of research examining the benefits or the risks of stimulant medication -– the most common type of drug used to treat ADHD –- over the long term, many parents and doctors may decide that a stimulant (along with continuing cognitive therapy) might be the most effective way to treat your child. But addressing ADHD first through non-medical means is best practices and in many cases makes using drugs…

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The number of children diagnosed with ADHD has skyrocketed over the last 30 years. But do more kids have ADHD, or are other factors in play? The number of children diagnosed with ADHD has skyrocketed since the early 2000s, and with it, so have prescriptions for powerful stimulant medications — with a long list of side effects — that many doctors are too often eager to dole out. So, what’s going on here? Why are so many more children being exposed to medications like Adderall and Ritalin, with side effects including poor appetite, stomach aches, irritability, sleep problems, and slowed…

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Using a combination of methods is the key to managing ADHD without drugs.  I have spent many years using an integrative approach to treat children with ADHD, usually using medication only when non-pharmaceutical interventions are not successful. This begs the question: Why not just use medications, since they have been shown to be effective? This could be the topic of an article in itself but, here’s my response, briefly. The research evidence so far supports only the fact that stimulant medications work well over the short term, and only about 70% of the time. The long-term research we have so…

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