How Adderall could actually hurt your kid’s grades

[n2doc]

More than one in twenty American children between the ages of 4 and 17 are medicated for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—up nearly 500% since 1990. Drugs like Adderall and Ritalin have a reputation as “good-grade pills” and “cognitive enhancers” that produce near-immediate improvements in the ability of children to pay attention in school.

The thing is, studies tracing the impact of ADHD meds report no improvement in academic performance in the long term, as Nature reports in a new review of existing research, and kids taking the drugs are in some cases more likely to drop out of school.

It’s not clear why this would be happening. The glib answer would be pharmaceutical marketing blitzes have duped us into believing the products’ brain-boosting properties. But a study from the 1970s, which predates big-budget ad campaigns for the stimulants, points the way to a more persuasive—and and potentially more worrying—explanation.

When the researchers in that study asked parents and teachers to evaluate ADHD children’s scholastic performance before and after medication, they found that though the children’s grades stayed the same, adults believed they improved, reports Nature.

more

http://qz.com/177111/how-adderall-could-actually-hurt-your-kids-grades/

[Gman]

1. My daughter's grades went from C's and D's to

mostly B's and a few A's when she started Adderal.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. My personal experience

And this is before ADHD became a buzz word, hell, I did not get the diagnosis until I was 27, I did better in math and chemistry and physics. I am talking a full grade here.

I could deal with math tests. I could sit through one. Once they took me off, and not in a step down process, I went back to having serious issues. At times I wonder if I took it while in premed, I would do better? Perhaps even med school? No, not going back to school. I take St. John's worth and fish oil, and coffee. That took a lot of the fuzziness away. If I had a kid, I would try that first. Mostly those drugs are a pain to get.

And knowing, having a diagnosis, was life changing.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. The grades didn't improve, but they sat still.

We don't grade kids on their ability to learn, we grade them on their ability to remain stationary.