Al,
I think that when parents make the difficult decision to medicate a child
for ADHD, it would be easy to attribute any effect such as you describe to
the disorder. ("Whew! At least he's better when he's on his meds!") I
have, however, heard many descriptions of "rebound effects" that appear to
be exacerbated ADHD symptoms that occur when the drug is wearing off (about
2 and a half hours after taking it). In fact, these effects often lead to
trying other, longer acting drugs such as dexedrine or adderall.
As the mother of a kid with ADHD, I have also been told that too little of
a stimulant can be worse than none -- especially for eliciting frustration,
acting out, even aggressive behavior. Note, however, that I've never been
able to locate research that supports this assertion.
In any case, finding the right drug at the right dose is a careful,
individual process. I hope your friend has found a doctor who is willing
to work at this and responds appropriately to your friend's reports of
concerns.
Jacque
Jacquelyn Gore Mercer
School Psychologist-in-Training
North Carolina State University
Department of Psychology
Raleigh, NC 27695-7801
At 05:50 PM 9/21/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>Tipsters,
>
>I don't usually bother the list until I've exhausted the on-line search
>sources I have available to me. Well, I can't find anything either way on
>this.
>
>Background. My friend described how wonderful Ritalin was for his 7-year-old
>
>grandson. He supported how great it was by saying how awful the kid was when
>
>the drug "wore off." I couldn't help myself. I asked him to describe what
>the
>kid did when the Ritalin wore off. The more detail he gave, the more I found
>
>myself thinking, "He's describing withdrawal."
>
>So, my searches for Ritalin AND withdrawal turned up nothing. From a large
>bibliography about Ritalin I found nothing that suggested there could be
>withdrawal. Even the folks who are most critical of Ritalin never mention
>anything about withdrawal.
>
>So, am I just hypothesizing, no, better make that guessing? Maybe most of
>the
>people who give their kids Ritalin never goof up and have it wear off? I
>would
>think, given Ritalin's similarity to other drugs, some one would have
>checked
>on this.
>
>Any references would be appreciated.
>
>Al
>
>Al L. Cone, Ph.D. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>6019 College Lane http://www.jc.edu/users/faculty/cone
>Jamestown College
>Jamestown, ND 58405
>"Quality is undeniably, though not necessarily, related to class, not in its
>nature but in its circumstances."
>Barbara Tuchman (1980). The Decline of Quality, _The Times Magazine__
>
>
