"Living With ADHD" 
              "Organizing Life One Minute at A time"

                 An UncommonSense Health Newsletter
                              from drhuggiebear.com and Frank Barnhill, M.D.

Issue 12           Volume 1                   December 2005

We really appreciate all the referrals you folks have made to our newsletter subscriber list!
As your friends, relatives and co-workers add their names to our list, more and more ADHD involved
families can be educated about the proper diagnosis and treatment of this life changing disorder.
Thanks from all of us at drhuggiebear.com!
Dr. Frank

This UncommonSense Health Newsletter is dedicated to being your source for easy to read, up to date ADHD
information on current and important medical issues for your growing family.

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Dr. Frank's behavioral rule #1:
       "ADHD is first a diagnosis of exclusion, then a diagnosis of inclusion!"
You must first exclude all the illnesses that mimic ADHD and then be sure the diagnosis fits ADHD traits.

This Month's issue:

ADHD medications

Not Every ADHD Child Needs To Be On Medications!
Frank Barnhill, M.D.

Who in their right mind would want their child on medications unless he or she really needed and would benefit from them?

It's my quest to educate others to ensure ADHD children and adults are accurately and adequately evaluated and treated for this life success threatening disorder!

It's one thing for a doctor to make a diagnosis of ADHD, but unfortunately, statistics tend to indicate that an accurate diagnosis is made only 70 percent of the time and
in some studies, even less. That means 30 percent of between 9 and 12 million ADHDers in the United States alone, are not properly diagnosed or treated. That's an unreasonable
number of persons who may eventually become a burden upon society as they fail to grow and mature to reach an independent adulthood. Just think of the number of people affected worldwide!

Labeling a child with ADHD can and often does have a profound impact upon their lives from that moment on. When the diagnosis is correct and treatment is properly rendered,
the ADHDer's quality of life can dramatically improve, leading to self-fulfillment as an independent successful adult. In contrast, when an ADHD diagnosis is incorrect or treatment is inadequate or improper, varying degrees of harm can be done to the child's potential in life.

Increasing numbers of parents want their ADHD child evaluated and treated for his or her impulsivity, inattentiveness, and hyperactivity, but don't want their kids on the drugs
used to treat ADHD.

Here are examples from my office of parent's comments about their ADHD children and the use of hyperactivity medications:

"I don't want my son to become dependent on a drug to control his behavior!" "I want him to learn to do it without medications." "I think he can improve his grades without those pills!"

"When my daughter was on those pills, she acted like a zombie."
"Her grades when to the bottom of the class." "She just wasn't normal."

"My son lost five pounds in one week and was so hyper he couldn't sit still."
"His mood swings were terrible and he acted mean." "I knew that wasn't my son."

"Our little girl couldn't sleep at night after taking only two days of those pills." "Then she started falling asleep in class and the teacher called us complaining."

"My little boy just didn't act right after starting those pills." "It's like the spunk had been taken out of him." "He didn't have the drive to do anything."

Hey, in general, most doctors agree that not every child with ADHD needs or should be treated with drugs for hyperactivity.

This is a very understandable situation as ADHD drugs can:
· Make the condition worse with some kids becoming even more inattentive or hyper
· Cause side effects such as depressed appetite with weight loss, headaches, stomach aches, problems sleeping at night, excessive daytime
                sleepiness, mood swings and irritability
· Cause a child to lose that "drive in life" that makes them competitive and pushes them toward success, leading to apathy and loss of that
                little "edge" that gives them the ability to survive
· Lead a family to believe that ADHD can be cured with medications alone, thus avoiding the behavioral training needed to successfully treat the disorder
· Cause depression symptoms to surface in susceptible ADHDers, leading to feelings of hopelessness and social withdrawal
· Contrary to popular belief can cause grades to worsen, instead of improve
· When the diagnosis is incorrect, actually cause much more harm than good


Unfortunately, treating ADHD is a lot like treating high blood pressure, you may or may not need medicine, but to achieve control, you must make lifestyle or
behavioral changes to successfully treat the problem.

For example, those treated for high blood pressure always need to go on a low salt diet and lose weight in order to keep their hypertension under control.
The same philosophy is true of treating ADHD. In order to give your child the best chance of "growing out of the disorder" or "learning to adjust, adapt and
become successful", you have to provide lifestyle and behavioral training. The entire family will often need to make changes in their social and emotional
interactions in order to make any ADHD therapy plan work.

To learn more about the evaluation and treatment of ADHD, please visit http://www.drhuggiebear.com/ and read our article "When it's not ADHD, what is it, a Zebra?"

If you're looking for help to improve your ADHDer's school grades or with your child's learning and testing skills, we have found Pat Wyman's book, "Learning VS Testing" to
be an invaluable resource. As I read Pat's book, I was impressed with her insights and good solid advice in teaching kids how to learn. Just follow this link:
http://www.howtolearn.com

Dr. Frank