For people who have ADHD or are otherwise largely uninformed about the literature surrounding this topic, I implore you not to post the first thing that comes to your mind when reading the title.

As a f***ing re t ard myself, I find it difficult to pinpoint when or if a child should be medicated for ADHD.

I ask you to consider the effects on brain development/maturation, socialization, and academic performance, as well as the variable side effects that can accompany amphetamine or methylphenidate-based medications.

Offer your thoughts below.

I think medication helps but should be used alongside habit training, building up their brain so they take all necessary precursors in their day to day with assistance from a parent. but you often have to try different medications before you find the right one for a person, all adhd cases are not the same. I think children should be on medication if it helps them but sometimes they get put on the wrong medication and it doesn't help their primary issues.

as someone who has it, it would be beneficial to take medication, it affects all aspects of your life. a lot of us don't realize how bad our s*** is until we become adults and you aren't in a controlled and pre-structured environment like school or with your parents.

I was medicated when I was really young like 4 or 5 and it f***ed me up real good :​

Get them prescribed stimulants and take them all yourself

wtf does a 4 year old need to focus on

All of the time

D**** are good

Elaborate on your experience, if you don't mind

Didn't start medicating until adulthood to be able to even function at jobs, and I def should've been on that s*** in middle/high school. Would've done insanely better in school then

It's definitely an interesting decision on the part of the parents to medicate their child that young, but reducing it to requirement to focus is crude

There is no flat age number

It depends on many factors, some about school, some behavioral, etc

Medication like that is highly individualized and if you had 10 PhDs in a room asking this question you may have 10 different answers

When people I work for ask these questions I tell them to consider all of the factors surrounding. Is it only being brought up due to school influence? Or is this related to aggression in the home? Does this have to do with compliance, or does it have to do with deficits in much needed cognitive areas?

I had this conversation today with a family actually. She decided against it. Pre adolescent with severe concentration deficits which only matter in his life at school. I work on it at his home anyways and it's not being seen as that much of a big deal outside of schooling. This dumbass school was also talking about fc anyways

Don't medicate them just so they can fit in and not cause so much trouble. It's doubtful how much that works as well as not being morally right.

Alternative education can be a better solution especially if it gets more investment. I know kids who got expelled from mainstream education but became successful from the trades their alternative education taught them.

My mom said no after I was diagnosed but I tried Adderall several years later and despised how slow it made me feel. Like I wasn't me. F*** that s***

I agree to a point

What do you mean by cause too much trouble?

I have had young clients be very aggressive and dangerous due to ADHD. That's the point where it may be needed at a young age.

Family wanted to keep him out of school due to this instead of adhd medication. What helps the kid more or less here?

Obviously I'm not saying 2, but at 3 collection of data on this behavior may be the point where it changes things regarding to ADHD medication

Or sell them if your poor

Knew a family doing this...

There's like 10 others if you feel it may help. If not don't waste your time. Non stimulant ADHD meds usually won't do that too (ex strattera)

I was way too hyperactive . I couldn’t focus in school or stay still and had no control over my emotions. Doctors recommended medicating me but once my parents realized it was turning me into a former shell of myself they took me off it.

It was actually around kindergarten/ first grade so maybe 6 or 7

I'm glad somebody working with children who have ADHD provided insight here

I just find it interesting that parents who may not know how symptoms of the disorder are manifesting can make medical decisions that could change the outcome of their son/daughter' s life.

A severe concentration deficit only affecting school and excluding other developmental domains because of the age that it's exhibited doesn't make much sense to me.

Personally, I don't think medication should be utilized as a tool for compliance to societal standards. At the end of the day, it's a medication, regardless of whether it's psychotropic. I don't think the science behind the disorder should be forgotten or marginalized, but all we have now is DSM V's "impact on quality of life", which is quite difficult to determine in children.

Was it prescribed?

Not beating other kids due to boredom, being able to "wait" for longer than 2 seconds instead wailing on a parent because they're cooking and they want milk (this behavior grows as it's naturally reinforced), etc

Also that's not all ADHD meds do. Hyper fixation can cause problems at young ages and the behavior can strengthen.

Self esteem issues is a heavily studied one too

I 100% think this s*** mad over prescribed tho

Yup and it's sad it's thrown on kids for compliance so often. It's so much more than that, so don't f***in give it to KIDS for just that

We need better screening and functional behavior assessment use before throwing kids on all this. I know schools sort of do those, it's different and lighter due to nklb laws but goddam

I just spent 4 hours writing a paper on ethics in psych so why f***in stop now I guess

Trauma from chronic sensory overstimulation, social rejection, reinforcing bad compensatory habits, the list goes on forever

It's baffling to me that there isn't a wealth of long-term research on the functional and developmental effects of ADHD medication on children (positive and negative)

For medication that's so robustly effective in treating the majority of individuals with ADHD, why has this not been accomplished yet?

Glad to see America is putting its taxpayer money to good use