ADHD Drugs : Predictions of effectiviness of the stimulants

ADHD drugs and effective response to stimulants:

Predicting the response to stimulants is not always an easy task when using these ADHD drugs. Some of the characteristics most consistent with improvement when using these medications have been pretreatment levels of sustained attention and hyperactivity. The more hyperactivity these children seem to have before treatment with these ADHD drugs, the better their response is likely to be. Factors that predict adverse responding have not been studied quite as well. However, existing research indicates that higher pretreatment levels of anxiety are associated with poor responding to stimulants and other ADHD drugs.

There is very little debate that the stimulant medications are the best studied and the most effective treatment for the behavioral management of ADHD symptoms, as well as its secondary characterisitcs. For many children with moderate to severe levels of ADHD, stimulants may be the very first treatments employed in their clinical management. Other treatments may also be required to assist the stimulant medications as medications do not usually address all of the presenting problems shown by these children. Also, current formulations of these ADHD drugs do not provide continuous treatment across the entire day, leaving a period of time when psychosocial intervention and management methods need to be used. The following issues should usually be considered when trying to determine whether medication management for ADHD would be advisable: (1) the age of the child; (2) the duration and severity of the symptoms; (3) the risk of injury to the child ( potential for their abuse or accidental injury) posed by the present severity of symptoms; (4) the success rate of prior treatments; (5) relative levels of anxiety; (6) whether there has been any indication of stimulant abuse by either the child/adolescent or their caregivers and (7) the likelihood that parents will be compliant with medication regimen in conjunction with their physician recommendations.