Ritalin

[asereht]

Hi all,

 

As you know my son was dx with Aspergers and dyspraxia last year, it was thought at first he had ADHD.

 

 

Now after review, psych says he has ADHD as well as the other two, as my son has a lot of concentration/attention problems.

We are not arguing the dx at all.

The problem is it was suggested he start taking 'Ritalin LA' on a trial basis but my son flatly refuses (he is 15). The psych said he respects his decision but asked him to research and think about it.

 

My son does not want to to this as he says he will not take drugs at all. I have read up a bit about ritalin but the news is mostly bad (the psych already told us about insomnia and loss of appetite) and I am beginning to agree with my son, that it's not worth thinking about.

 

Any advice or opinion welcomed from anyone who is on it or who decided not to go on it for any reason.

 

Please,

 

Theresa

[loulou]

Hi Theresa,

 

Kai has been on and off Ritalin now for over a year. He is only 7, so it's difficult to make any comparisons to your son. However, when he first went on it, he was only dx with ADHD and i found that it really brought out his AS symptoms. He has since been dx with ASD aswell.

 

I stopped it partly because of the AS syptoms (i didn't really know what was going on) and partly guilt at having given him "drugs".

 

We then tried the slow release Ritalin, but i think the dose was too high so it made him too quiet.

 

He has now been back on standard Ritalin for three weeks and is doing really well. His teachers have noticed a huge difference in his concentration and he is MUCH less hyper. He says he likes it because it helps him not to be "silly" and he says he can play better. He has produced some fab art work whilst taking it.

 

The downside is appetite loss, but that only lasts a few weeks with Kai then he's back to munching again! He also has trouble getting off to sleep if he's had the Ritalin late in the afternoon. Melatonin helps with this though.

 

The slow release Ritalin lasts for 12 hours, so you would have to take it pretty early in the morning if you wanted to be able to go to sleep ok. However, the normal Ritalin only lasts 3-4 hours. I find this works for Kai because he has it first thing, then at lunch time. If he's really hyper after school or if we're going out somewhere, i top him up with a third dose or half a dose. You can adjust the amount with the normal ritalin which i have found helpful.

 

I hope this has been of use, not confused you even more.

 

 

Loulou x

[rvsurtees]

hiya, i don't have autism or any children with autism but I'm a sociology student at the London School of Economics and I'm doing a course in health and medicine where there's a lot about ADHD and ritalin.

 

so... i don't know anything about how it would interact with autism but this is what i do know about ritalin and ADHD: as usual the pharmaceutical industry has a lot to answer for they basically latched on to ADHD and created ritalin and now as a result diagnoses of ADHD have become absolutely ridiculous (1 in 5 boys in the US apparently have it). the effect it's having is that those that actually do have ADHD don't receive the proper care they need and those that don't are just put on drugs anyway.

 

sorry i've gone off the point a bit... so as far as i know ritalin itself isn't a particularly dangerous drug (it has some side effects but on the whole they're not too severe) - it works a little like an aspirin in that you could take it when you need it and it works for that period of time (rather than requiring a whole course before it takes effect). it definitely does temporarily increase concentration levels but it does that for anybody regardless of anything else, so students have started taking it half an hour before exams and things like that.

 

I don't know if that's at all helpful? Dr Ilina Singh has written a lot about it if you wanted to look her up?

[call me jaded]

Although not mentioned by name in this report, Ritalin is the most commonly prescribed ADD/ADHD drug and there are concerns emerging about its safety:

 

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtl...cs/13550374.htm

 

To medicate or not is such a personal choice, my only advice is to read as much as you can.

[UltraMum]

J was diagnosed with ADHD then ASD - he has Ritalin, similar to loulou's Kai - there is a fine line to tread between a dosage that minimises the hyperactivity and a dosage that exacerbates the autism - HOWEVER - without the Ritalin he is unmanageable - lobs stones through windows etc so we continue to walk the tightrope ...

Edited January 20, 2006 by MotherEve

[UltraMum]

this is what i do know about ritalin and ADHD: as usual the pharmaceutical industry has a lot to answer for they basically latched on to ADHD and created ritalin

I think that you will find that Ritalin was first used in the mid 50's for treatment of narcolepsy and wasn't actually used for ADHD until 1963/4

Dr Ilina Singh has written a lot about it if you wanted to look her up?

I have done

Doing their jobs: mothering with Ritalin in a culture of mother-blame

Social Science & Medicine 59 (2004)

 

In the literature on ADHD, I would suggest, mothers have often been accused of poor mothering in relation to boys with ADHD. Mothers stand to benefit most from whatever absolution comes

with a medical answer and solution to children's problem behaviors.

...

Mothers' talk post-diagnosis about their sons' problems and their causes often centered around the lack of assignable blame, and the importance of separating the boy from ''the problem.'' As one mother told me, It's not his problem, it's his brain's problem; and another said, echoing a phrase clinicians use to explain ADHD, ''It's his behavior that's the problem, not him.'' I call this understanding of causes for boys' behaviors the ''nofault'' model of behavior. This model suggests that no one is to blame for disorder; therefore, no one can be held responsible for behaviors that growout of disorder. Organic causes are not morally accountable. But which behaviors are linked to disorder, and for which behaviors should boys be held responsible? With a diagnosis whose symptoms are as ambiguous as ADHD, an increasing number of problematic

behaviors can be ascribed to the disorder and are therefore apparently not the personal responsibility of anyone.

...

Conclusion

There is nothing new about a woman's turn to medicine and a pill to help her improve herself.

Similarly, there is nothing very new about a mother's efforts to improve her children, nor is mother's turn to science for help in child behavior management new. What is new is that American mothers now increasingly turn to a pill to improve their sons' behavior and performance. In that process they adopt a brain-blame narrative of their sons' behaviors that ostensibly absolves them of personal blame for these behaviors. Mothers' personal interests in the improved behavior of sons are obscured?and replaced?with a narrative of behavior in which the brain is the main and isolated actor.

The way I read and interpret her work - and I've only skim read two papers - is that she is basically saying that it is social factors that are driving up the diagnoses and that mothers see it as a way of absolving themselves of the 'apparent' blame [from society] for their son's poor behaviour.

"Mothers stand to benefit most from whatever absolution comes with a medical answer and solution to children's problem behaviors."

[UltraMum]

Sorry asereht - rather hijacked your thread there -

[Elanor]

MotherEve

 

Good analysis there! I think everyone here takes care to consider our childrens' problems from all angles, and that can reasonably includes a careful consideration of medication. We no more want to be labelled as mothers looking to be absolved from blame, than we want to be called refridgerator mums. BTW - aren't fathers involved in child-rearing in Dr Ilina's world?

 

Elanor

[UltraMum]

BTW - aren't fathers involved in child-rearing in Dr Ilina's world?

 

Elanor

 

Oh yes! It's all on the PC and I'm on my laptop at the moment but that was very interesting reading as well...

[UltraMum]

Oh yes! It's all on the PC and I'm on my laptop at the moment but that was very interesting reading as well...

 

Here you go: make your own mind up ...

 

Mothers of boys with ADHD symptoms reported

particularly strong reinforcement for their feelings of

inadequacy and personal responsibility for their sons'

behaviors in certain social and relational interactions.

Here I focus on two major sources of reinforcement

mentioned by mothers: fathers' attitudes and community

settings.

 

Fathers' attitudes

Fathers I spoke to often had distinctly different

understandings of their sons' "symptomatic" behaviors.

I put the adjective "symptomatic" in quotation marks to

reflect the feelings of some fathers that their sons'

behaviors did not warrant medical intervention. Such

feelings seem to have played a role in the absence of

fathers in clinic evaluations of their sons. Several women

reported that they had purposely excluded their husbands

from the initial consultation at the clinic, fearing a

strong negative reaction to the evaluation procedure.

Less than one-third of fathers I interviewed had

participated in their sons' initial clinic evaluations.

 

Fathers were not only physically absent; in my review

of approximately 70 files of clinic cases for possible

inclusion in a study, I could ascertain the contribution of

only one father to materials sent to the family prior to

evaluation. These materials included child behavior

checklists and a developmental history of the child.

Beyond the clinical setting where these particular interviews

took place, fathers were largely absent in actual

and virtual support groups for parents of children with

ADHD and in educational conferences for parents of

children with ADHD in which I participated (Singh,

2003).

 

A majority of women I interviewed felt that their

husbands did not share their concerns over their sons'

behaviors. Several mothers said their husbands thought

they were inventing problems. As Regina describes,

fathers' doubts had implications for mothers? feelings of

inadequacy:

He [husband] would tell me that I was crazy to keep

thinking there was something wrong. He'd say,

"There's nothing wrong!?? It really dulled my

motherly instincts to have him doubt me that way.

I began thinking I really was crazy.

Other husbands hinted that their wives might be

encouraging behavioral problems in their sons through

overly indulgent mothering. Mary describes her husband's

reaction to her concerns:

He [husband] said to me, not in a mean way or

anything, that maybe things would get better if I

wasn't so soft on [son]. Maybe I was babying him too

much and needed to let him growup some.

Still other husbands left their wives alone to tackle

whatever problems their sons were having, thereby

reinforcing mothers' sense of failed duty when they

could not solve the problem of their sons? behaviors.

Mindy describes a scene between her and her husband

following their son's tantrum:

Jason [son] had finally calmed down and we sent him

out with his sister to play in the yard. And Jim

[husband] turns to me and says, "So, what are you

going to do about this?" And I thought, oh God,

what am I going to do? And only later did I think,

hey, he's not just my son. But really, it was my

problem as his mother.

Such attitudes among fathers inevitably contributed

to mothers' feelings of personal responsibility and selfblame

prior to their sons' diagnosis. In these reports of

fathers' attitudes there is further reinforcement for

mothers' sense of isolation and failure, as well as the

tendency to associate problem behaviors in boys with

bad mothering. There is also support for the association

between maternal inadequacy and maternal pathology.

Regina's husband thinks she is "crazy" to see something

wrong with their son. His suggestion that Regina is

seeing something that does not exist causes Regina to

feel she really is crazy. Regina knows something is

wrong; she names this knowing "motherly instinct." In

this particular struggle between the vision of mother and

the vision of father, motherly instinct is at stake. An

essentializing image of mother comes complete with the

equation of maternal instinct and maternal fitness.

Craziness is both the feeling and the sign of maternal

instinct gone awry.

 

Fathers' absences from evaluations and their doubts

about diagnosis suggest that they do not have the same

stake in diagnosis. Some fathers even considered the

possibility that their sons were not the primary beneficiaries

of diagnosis and treatment. Occasionally a father

would ask me directly about this, as did one father,

casually, while putting on his coat after the interview: Do

the people here, do you, you know is it possible that you

would give a kid Ritalin for the mother's sake?

Edited January 20, 2006 by MotherEve

[Elanor]

Mother Eve

 

I stand corrected!! Interesting stuff.

 

Elanor

[asereht]

Thanks for opinions/advice so far. More advice /opinions welcomed.

 

T

[lil_me]

My son started taking this 2 years ago, his appetitie is affected whilst the drug is working but not when a dose wears off, he needs it only at school to concentrate and his work has improved dramatically since. His reading is amazing. I did read a lot, but made sure I focused on factual articles, rather than jus random news reports. IMO there are much worse drugs used for ASD like Risperidol etc something like 100 times more sudden deats reported by patients on Risperidol than on Ritalin. But as some of you know 8 paracetamol killed my Aunty, all drugs can kill if abused or not monitored.

 

I do question myself every time my son takes a tablet, but then I look at what its done for him, it has kept him in school and made him able to work to his ability. He at first refused medication, but now he asks for it, he says they stop the ants in his pants.

 

As a mother who's son takes it I do not benefit at all from him being on medication as he does not take it at home.

Edited January 21, 2006 by lil_me

[UltraMum]

J's is for school we try to give it a rest over weekends and school holidays but do sometimes use a lower dose at home - mainly for our sanity -

[asereht]

Decision made " I am not going on meds and the subject is closed" he has researched with our help and come to this final decision.

I agree.

 

I am proud of the way he handled it.

[Zemanski]

hope it all works out - these are really difficult decisions to make

 

<'> <'> <'>

 

Zemanski

[lil_me]

Hope everything works out ok, it is good he's been able to help make these decisions himself.

[microsoft_admin]

hey i was mis diagnosed hundreads of times the shrinks once put me on ritilan and it was a great appitite supressant so ritilan rocks if you whant to lose wait but dowen side to taken for ritilen for me was it made me wet the bed a lot and i had to take it for 6 year before they figerd out i dident have add or adhd i was so skiney during that time you coud see my rib cage lol my mum said i looked like a 3rd world orphan but not 2 shure what that means any way good luck with ur son

 

Hi all,

 

As you know my son was dx with Aspergers and dyspraxia last year, it was thought at first he had ADHD.

Now after review, psych says he has ADHD as well as the other two, as my son has a lot of concentration/attention problems.

We are not arguing the dx at all.

The problem is it was suggested he start taking 'Ritalin LA' on a trial basis but my son flatly refuses (he is 15). The psych said he respects his decision but asked him to research and think about it.

 

My son does not want to to this as he says he will not take drugs at all. I have read up a bit about ritalin but the news is mostly bad (the psych already told us about insomnia and loss of appetite) and I am beginning to agree with my son, that it's not worth thinking about.

 

Any advice or opinion welcomed from anyone who is on it or who decided not to go on it for any reason.

 

Please,

 

Theresa

[asereht]

hey i was mis diagnosed hundreads of times the shrinks once put me on ritilan and it was a great appitite supressant so ritilan rocks if you whant to lose wait but dowen side to taken for ritilen for me was it made me wet the bed a lot and i had to take it for 6 year before they figerd out i dident have add or adhd i was so skiney during that time you coud see my rib cage lol my mum said i looked like a 3rd world orphan but not 2 shure what that means any way good luck with ur son

 

 

Hi and welcome to the forum. Glad my son decided not to go on the ritalin.

 

I think he is just a bit stressed at the moment and that is why they think he has ADHD.

 

Thanks for sharing your story about the ritalin with me. My son doesn't eat a very wide range of foods so the last thing I need is for him to lose his appetite!

 

T

[Rachelp2]

Hi all,

 

I get upset when Ritalin get's a bad name so often - it's each to their own opinions I guess and it's not easy when one has to decide to medicate their child or not.

 

I am an adult ADDER and have had a hell of a time firstly getting the diagnosis then the Ritalin, it has been well worth it though, Ritalin is not a miricle cure at all but have BIG regrets that I have been robbed of living a better life by not being diagnosed when younger.

 

For me personally - Ritalin has changed me, my outlook, my confidence, my opinions - although I do agree that we are all different and that one medication may help one person yet hinder another.

 

Best Wishes,

Rach x

[asereht]

Hi all,

 

I get upset when Ritalin get's a bad name so often - it's each to their own opinions I guess and it's not easy when one has to decide to medicate their child or not.

 

I am an adult ADDER and have had a hell of a time firstly getting the diagnosis then the Ritalin, it has been well worth it though, Ritalin is not a miricle cure at all but have BIG regrets that I have been robbed of living a better life by not being diagnosed when younger.

 

For me personally - Ritalin has changed me, my outlook, my confidence, my opinions - although I do agree that we are all different and that one medication may help one person yet hinder another.

 

Best Wishes,

Rach x

 

 

I totally understand where you're coming from but my sons dx is Aspergers and now they are adding ADHD which we were told was a wrong first dx! So we feel it would make things worse for him going on ritalin.

 

T

[UltraMum]

J was diagnosed the other way round - ADHD first, then HFA. The paed who diagnosed the HFA said that the HFA diagnosis basically trumps the ADHD as hyperactivity is so common with HFA/AS - it could just be part and parcel of his autism.

 

Perhaps this is similar to your son ... especially if, as you say, he is stressed at the moment - this may just be making the hyperactivity either worse, or just more obvious.

 

I wish you and your son all the best in making these difficult decisions. J is getting more aware of being the only child in his class who has to take tablets and consequently is less happy taking his Ritalin - we may be facing a similar situation in the future.

[asereht]

Mother eve said:

"J was diagnosed the other way round - ADHD first, then HFA. The paed who diagnosed the HFA said that the HFA diagnosis basically trumps the ADHD as hyperactivity is so common with HFA/AS - it could just be part and parcel of his autism.

 

Perhaps this is similar to your son ... especially if, as you say, he is stressed at the moment - this may just be making the hyperactivity either worse, or just more obvious."

 

Mother eve,

I agree , Sometimes I wonder about these so called experts ,the original guy said ADHD then this guy said NO not ADHD Aspergers which I agree with I never thought he had ADHD, now this same guy is saying ADHD aswell as Aspergers

 

I said earlier in posting the I didn't disagree with him saying ADHD aswell now I don't know! Think I need another word with the psychiatrist.

Edited January 23, 2006 by asereht

[UltraMum]

now I don't know

 

Life is difficult enough - isn't it?

 

In the long run - what difference will it make to your son with or without the label? Does it help him to access more services? Does it worry him? Only you will know what difference this will make.

 

Sorry not to be of more help

[darky]

well, i know im late on this one, but wanted to add my thoughts to this.

my daughter was first dx with DAMP syndrome, and was put on a trial of ritalin right away. it was like turning on a light, for the first time she was fixed, focused and "sat" on my lap for the first time and told me she loved me.

in this house ritalin first and now concerta has given us a life and a good relationship with our daughter. she is achieving well in school and now i see what a polite, loving and such a clever girl she is. the adhd side of things hid her true personality and her abilities. in school she was excluded within inclusion as she could not cope in the classroom. instead of falling behind her peers she is over taking them.

she now has a formal dx of pdd-nos with attention deficit.

where there are the good stories of medication there are bad too. there is always some people willing to put down all the many positives of using this drug.

it really scares me that when i have put ritalin in the search bar of the internet there are many horror stories of this drug that has changed the lives of many people, children and adults, for the better.

adhd is a real and debilitating condition and ritalin offers some, but not all a real chance to live their lives and their potential.

i feel sick sometimes that people do say horrid things about this drug, because to me its like telling me my childs condition is not real or that i am a bad person for choosing to medicate my child.

pure and simple it is for me, my child has a treatable medical condition, like diabetes or something else. i would not hesitate to give my child insulin if she was diabetic, so why would i deny giving her a drug that can help her now??

obviously everyone has the right to choose whether or not to medicate, but i do not understand why people still continue to harp on about how ritalin is a dangerous life threatening drug. all drugs come with side effects, calpol aka paracetomol is a potentialy dangerous drug, but we do not hear the scarey stories about that, and how the use of calpol has rocketed in the past how ever many years!!

[microsoft_admin]

i think ritilen should be taken of the market as there are so many bad side affects from it