Answers for Impulsivity?

Hi Gee,

My son has inattentive ADHD and a non-verbal learning disorder (and an auditory processing disorder and an anxiety disorder). I understand your head and heart aches.

Let me preface my information here by saying that all children respond to drugs differently. There is no right or wrong medication - just the one that works for your child. My son did well on Concerta, but didn’t sleep. So we switched him to Adderal and he was awful - sitting in a corner with a blanket over his head crying while his friends were here! So we went to Methylin - and while his attention was better, he wasn’t the sweet little kid I know and love (deliberately antagonizing his friends and not being part of the group).

So, I took him off meds for the summer, did my own research, and found a new doctor who is extremely knowledgable about ADHD and associated meds for it. Some of my research included doing the ADHD assessment at mindfixers.com. There are two doctors with input there, and based on your answers to the questions, there are canned responses as to what type of ADHD you or your child has, and what chemical in the brain may be affected. Then they give you pharmacological and natural alternative suggestions to help the level of whichever chemical needs help - all this with a HUGE caveat that you do nothing without your doctor’s permission. Then I researched the drugs - found a great site at medscape.com. You have to register - but it was painless. I found many, many good websites by google searching - these are just the two I found MOST useful - don’t limit your research to only these two place.

I took the test at mindfixers.com and then filled it in for my son. We both came up with low dopamine levels in our brains. I went to the medscape site and discovered that buproprion (generic drug name) works on the dopamine levels in the brain, and is also indicated for use with ADHD. We went to the doctor and discussed all these issues (including the hereditary aspects of these disorders). We put my son on Wellbutrin. It has buproprion and is an anti-depressant. My son takes 1/2 dose for anxiety. After some discussion, the doctor decided that just the Wellbutrin would not cure all the ills of my son’s inattentiveness - so he takes Ritalin LA in addition to that. He’s been on this combination for a month, and is like a new kid. He beams at us, he’s good with his friends, he’s “easy” in his skin - not the worried, frowning child he had been for a few years.

So, this worked for us - hope it gives you some ideas to work on to help your daughter.

Lil

Thanks so much for this post, My daughter could be the one described in the first post, 12 yr. old, NLD, inattentive ADD with incredible verbal impulsivity, etc. (alienating classmates, the whole 9 yards…..the whole football field!).

We have been thinking about needing a med switch and I will definitely f/up on your suggestions.

Thank you for sharing that Adderall XR helps with inattentiveness and distractibility but it does not help with the impulsivity in your view. That’s not surprising it seems to me as impulsivity may involve another neurotransmitter/whatever which the Adderall XR does not address.

The feeling I get is that often Adderall XR/whatever is kind of promoted as being able to address so many symptoms well - when it fact - Adderall XR/other stimulants/alerting agents may actually only address a fairly narrow range of symptoms along the lines of inattentiveness and distractibility.

The ADHD meds often only address part of the challenge/like the edge of the challenge vs the whole thing - the whole challenge - but it is not politically correct for the drug companies/the pr - public relations departments - to really disclose that (as it might impact the perception of the drugs as being good yet imperfect medicines - a perception which can impact sales - so the limitations of the meds are often overlooked/winked at so as not to impact the sales/whatever of the products). That’s my view. Good luck.

–

Geewiznit posted - Date: 10-18-02

I come to you with a pounding headache and heavy heart. My 11-year-old daughter has been taking Adderall XR for some time. While the effect has lessened over time, it does help with her inattentiveness and enables her to complete homework with much less distractibility. However, impulsivity is a huge problem for her—she was sent out of the classroom twice at religious school this afternoon for speaking out of turn (hence my headache), and her initial evaluation for school this year (we have her in a new private school where feedaback is frequent and extensive) included a comment from her math teacher that she constantly interrupts students and the teacher, speaks without raising her hand or being called on, is impatient with other students who are having trouble, and is becoming socially isolated as a result. Her impulsive speech, together with a diagnosed nonverbal learning disorder that makes it difficult for her to pick up on nonverbal cues, has wrecked her social life. (Hence my heavy heart.) She is attending a social skills class, and intellectually appreciates what is taught, but without control over her impulsiveness, she can’t implement it. I would be interested in hearing from others who may have found a medication or combo of meds that was helpful for impulsivity, or, for that matter any other therapies or ideas (Concerta was ineffective for her). Many thanks.

We’re starting her on a very small dose of Risperdal tomorrow, in hopes of calming her anxiety and giving her some control over herself. I’ve heard it can work wonders in some, but it also has some nasty side effects: half the kids on it gain a lot of weight from a combination of increased appetite and slowed metabolism. This would be an unacceptable result for a child this age, both healthwise and socially, so my fingers are crossed.