ADD Medication - Case Studies
Emma is a college student and was diagnosed with ADD. She states, "I’m distractible, unorganized, impatient and I procrastinate".She doesn’t look at ADD in a negative light. She feels that even though she cannot sit still through a lecture, she can write an amazing essay. Emma’s creativity, intuitivism, and intelligence help her get through life.
When Emma was diagnosed with ADD she was relieved. She finally felt like she knew the answer to the mistakes she made, the bad grades, and the stupid things she had said.
Emma began taking medication and her life made a 360-degree turn. She was acing tests, understood lessons, could comprehend exactly what the book was saying and for the first time she was focused. She is determined to have a normal life and she states, “With medicine, counseling, and a lot of support, I’m going to be okay”.
Terri’s son, David, was tested repeatedly for different things to determine what was wrong with his behavior. Terri explains that David was different right from birth. He was being unsafe when it came to things that were active, more vocal and inquisitive.
When David entered the fourth grade, his teacher had him tested for ADD. David was diagnosed with ADD and was given medication to help him cope with it. By the end of fourth grade, he was reading and progressed as the year went on.
David cannot, however, take written assignments as easily as the other children. He has a hard time getting the information from his head through his pencil and onto paper. Although David is coping well with the disorder, he still becomes frustrated with it. He constantly wants to do better. Terri just tells him to take things one stop at a time.
Christa is twenty-years old. She was diagnosed with ADD in the sixth grade. However, signs of ADD appeared as early as twenty-two months when she was taken to a speech therapist because Christa was not speaking at all. Christa was tested and found to be functioning at a seven-month old level of speech and language.
In school as a child, Christa was not given attention because she was so extremely quiet she simply was not noticed. She was known as the, “different” kid. In class, she was time and time again made fun of because of this.
As Christa grew older, she was put into a class that the teacher cared enough to have her tested. She was diagnosed with ADD and our parents were told to put her on Ritalin. She began taking the Ritalin and was a totally different person in a negative outlook. She was like a vegetable.
When she was taken off the Ritalin, she returned to her old self. Christa coped with ADD the rest of her adolescent life and graduated high school with a great deal of help from her parents and high school teachers and counselors.
Christa is now a sophomore in college and has made great strives in learning to control her disorder. She is doing very well and making good grades. Most people could not tell she has the disorder.
A treatment to help the situations affected by ADD is Ritalin. It comes in short term tablets that last about three hours. This way, the medication will last through the school day.
Although some people believe that Ritalin is a good medication, it has sparked a great deal of controversy. The side effects seem to be worse than the actual problem.
Some children may lose weight, have less appetite, and tend to grow at a slower pace. Others might have problems falling asleep. Even though the medication has side effects, doctors say that they can be handled by reducing the dosage.
Another leading treatment is dextroamphetamine, more commonly known as Dexedrine. Dexedrine is also used to treat narcolepsy and it is a short-term treatment for obesity. Dexedrine is one of the better drugs to help patients with ADD. It does, however, have some side effects.
The most common side effects are agitation, irritability and insomnia. The infrequent side effects that rarely occur are hallucinations, liver irritation, increased heart rate, tics, Tourette’s syndrome, and sexual difficulties.
Guanfacine or Tenex is yet another medication to treat ADD, but it is also used to treat mild to moderate high blood pressure. Tenex seems to work the best for hyperactivity, but not so much the distractibility.
Some people who are treated with Tenex experience some side effects such as, drowsiness, dry mouth, constipation, mild lowering of blood pressure on standing. More infrequent side effects that occur are skin problems such as rashes or itching, headache, dizziness, fatigue, insomnia, indigestion, nausea, diarrhea and slow heart rate.