What are the drugs for treating ADHD?

According to previous domestic surveys, the incidence of ADHD in primary school students is about 5 or less. Currently, the main drugs for treating this disease are Ritalin and Pemoline, both of which are available in China. In order to achieve good therapeutic effects and minimize side effects, it is necessary to consider how to choose drugs appropriately and how to take drugs reasonably.

Compared with the time of treatment effect, Ritalin works quickly. In some cases, taking the medicine in the morning will reduce the movement in the morning, and the attention will be focused. Compared with the day before not taking the medicine, it is completely different. The effect is really quick. Usually, if you take the medicine for a few consecutive days and forget to take the medicine on the same day, the teacher will find that the child's performance on the same day is different from that when taking the medicine continuously. It takes a few days to see the effect of treatment after taking pemoline, so parents should wait patiently. After taking Ritalin, the effective drug concentration in the blood generally lasts for 4 to 6 hours. It is most appropriate to take the medicine half an hour before class in the morning, because the effect can last for half a day, which can make children concentrate on listening to the class; if there are some main courses in the afternoon such as Chinese and arithmetic, half of the morning dose should be taken at noon to maintain the effective drug concentration until the afternoon. The drug concentration can be maintained for more than 24 hours after taking pemoline, so it is sufficient to take the medicine once a day.

The dosage of the drug does not have to be limited to the method of calculating by weight introduced in the book. The principle is to control the symptoms with the minimum dose of the drug. In many cases, only 5 mg of Ritalin can be effective at the beginning. When the effect is not obvious, it can be gradually increased to 10-20 mg per day, that is, it should start from a small dose and gradually increase. Under normal circumstances, the drug is stopped on Sundays, holidays, and vacations, but it is another matter when there are make-up exams and holiday make-up classes. The drug should still be taken. The drug should not be taken after 4 hours in the afternoon, otherwise it will be difficult to fall asleep at night, which will affect the study of the next day. The main side effects of the drug are poor appetite and pale complexion. Some people have dizziness, abdominal pain, rash, etc. Taking the drug in the morning, the loss of appetite at lunch is more prominent, so the quality and quantity of breakfast should be richer than before to make up for the lack of lunch. Taking the drug has little effect on dinner. As the treatment time increases, the phenomenon of poor appetite will gradually alleviate. The pale complexion is caused by the drug causing vasoconstriction, not physical illness.

The main advantage of pemoline is that it has few side effects, such as little effect on appetite, so some children switch to pemoline because their appetite decreases significantly after taking Ritalin. For children with a history of epilepsy, it is better to choose pemoline because it does not induce epilepsy.

As for the duration of medication, it is generally taken for at least two semesters. After the start of the school year, the dosage can be reduced or the medication can be stopped. Observe whether the symptoms before the dosage adjustment reappear. If the child also has enuresis, enuresis can also be controlled during the treatment of ADHD.

Parents should be reminded that this type of medicine only helps children concentrate and reduce their movements, but it cannot make them smarter. Therefore, to improve their grades, they also need to strengthen academic tutoring while taking the medicine, and should maintain close contact with teachers. Successful cases are often the result of close cooperation among the sick child, parents, teachers and doctors. In the early days of giving their children medicine, every parent worriedly asked the doctor a question: Will taking this type of medicine affect the child's memory or will the child develop mental retardation in the future? The doctor's answer is definitely not.