The Natural Treatment Options for ADHD; Possibilities to Avoid the Adverse Effects of Psychostimulants

My topic this week is The Natural Treatment Options for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder); How to Avoid the Adverse Effects of Psychostimulants.  My goal is to find and analyze the possible alternative treatments and options for ADHD, that are available today,  and compere them to the standard treatment; to prescribe psycostimulant drugs to patients. This maybe a little difficult to accomplish, but I think that this field of Psychology need to be examined, explored more deeply.

ADHD was first recognized as a specific disorder in the 1070s, and since, the number of children being diagnosed, is gradually increasing, ( Table 1.)   and diagnosed by the  DSM-IV-TR sytem. 50% of the children, diagnosed with ADHD, are retaining the disorder to adulthood. (Sarris, 2011)

When the disorder carried to adulthood, it can create many problems, such as serious social, economic issues and difficulties to adopt to the society;

“The economic consequences of ADHD persisting into

adulthood are significant, with one U.S. analysis finding an

average of 35 days of annual lost work performance, representing

120 million days of annual lost work in the labor

force, equivalent to $19.5 billion lost human capital.” (Saris, 2011)

As I looked thorough in the journal texts, I recovered, that  ADHD is routinely  treated with psychostimulants, a very strong pharmaceutical drug. ADHD treatment consist  pharmacological and no pharmacological methods, but in the United States,  psychostimulants (amphetamine and methylphenidate) are measured to be the primary treatments for patients with ADHD to reduce the symptoms of the disorder. ( Li, 2011)

When a child is diagnosed with ADHD in the USA, the parents are advised by the psychiatrist, and the teachers to put the child on “medication”, to avoid hyperactive behavior in the school, and home. Many parents follow this advice, and make their child to take the stimulant drugs, to calm them down. They happy to know, that their child’s behavior is improved, they no longer hyperactive. The disappointment comes, when the children start complaining about certain conditions that they did not have to deal with, before the stimulant drugs.  Taking the step to relieve a child from the symptoms of ADHD, has a big price;  facing  with the adverse side effects of  strong stimulant drugs. Most commonly reported side effects are include; Anorexia, Weight loss, Abdominal pains, Sleep disturbances, Headaches, Irritability, Depressed mood and appetite, Some reports of stimulant induced psychosis (Saris, 2011).

Regarding these adverse effects, especially in a vulnerable population as children, many parents start to look for, and take another road to reduce or eliminate their children’s ADHD symptoms: using alternative therapeutic treatments. The goal of this paper is, to introduce the most recently researched alternative methods of treating ADHD, especially children and to compere them to stimulant drugs, analyze  how could they deliver the same, effective results without the adverse side effects.

I will discuss these options next week in this blog!


References

Sarris J., Kean J., Schweitzer I. & Lake J., (2011) Complementary medicines (herbal and nutritional products) in the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A systematic review of the evidence, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 19(4), 216p. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2011.06.007