Adult ADD Strengths

So now you know how the US Government feels about Adults with ADHD. 2nd class citizens? An after thought? We’ll eventually get around to you, but you’re not really that important.

8 Years. Count em. Almost a decade. It has been used off label for quite some time, but now it’s “officially approved” by the FDA as medication for adults with ADHD. Maybe it’s not just the FDA’s fault, maybe its the manufacturer’s Mcneil Pediatrics/ Janssen-Ortho. Maybe both.

For the clinically inclined types, here’s the Medscape CME (free login required) on it. Here’s the detailed Concerta Prescribing Information PDF.

There are a lot of ways how to deal with Adult Attention Surplus Condition, aka Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Here are a few.

Top Ten Ways to Manage Adult ADHD

1. ADHD Coaching. More for adults than children. Pills can be useful but pills don’t teach skills. They can however, put you in a better place to learn them through ADD coaching or therapy. See the 26 benefits of adult ADHD coaching. Adult ADHD Coaching focuses on practical day to day ways to manage adult ADHD more effectively at work and at home. Adult ADHD Coaches work on dealing with the challenges of ADHD and identifying and developing the strengths of having ADHD. They work over the phone for 3-4 sessions per month. Most adult ADD coaches offer a free sample sessions of ADD coaching so you can try before you buy.

ADD Resources has a great list of links to dozens of ADHD related CME’s (continuing medical education) courses for medical professional and available to the general public as well. They also have links to podcasts and videos.

Next time you hear your Doctor/Psychologist/Psychiatrist say “I don’t know enough about ADD to diagnose or treat it”, show them this webpage.

One way to fight ignorance and stigma against ADHD in the medical profession and the media is knowledge about the condition, diagnosis and treatment.

Sometimes ADHD Adults and parents of ADHD kids need to help educate their Doctors/Psychologists/Psychiatrists about ADHD, since it still isn’t covered very well by medical schools (according to many doctor’s well versed in ADHD that I’ve talked to, who tend to be self educated).

The term Fisking, or to Fisk, is blogosphere slang describing detailed point-by-point criticism that highlights errors, disputes the analysis of presented facts, or highlights other problems in a statement, article, or essay.

Karin Klein an LA Times editorial staff writer wrote an editorial in the August 20th, 2007 issue entitled “Pens, Pencils and Meds”, which I thought just piled more unneeded stigma on people with ADHD. It unfortunately got picked up by many other newspapers, websites and blogs, further spreading the stigma and ignorance. I recently got an email from her saying she was on the Pulliam Fellowship, so she can work full time on an in-depth project in ADD and asked me to help her find mothers with ADD to interview. Being the curious type, I googled her and found this editorial Karin Klein wrote last August. I wrote back saying I declined and citing her article and made a few point about the stigma against ADDers it created, and that I didn’t want to help her create more stigma against ADDers.

One thing that’s not mentioned in the previous ABC 20/20 report about prescription medication errors is the doctors who write out prescription with sloppy, often unreadable handwriting. I’ve actually gone back to one doctor after getting a prescription and get him to verify what he scribbled because I couldn’t understand what he wrote.

I think Doctors should be required to either write prescriptions by printing them off a computer, or some type of portable label making device or use single space printing, NOT cursive writing. Yes I know you’re busy, but your patients shouldn’t have to risk injury or death because you’re not willing to take the time or make the effort to write out our prescriptions legibly.

20/20 did an undercover investigation of pharmacies at America’s big chain stores like Walgreens. Here’s the video. They found that there were errors in filling prescriptions in more than one in five cases. They talked about how

Overworked pharmacist are pushed to fill prescriptions at a fast food pace

How many mistakes are made? No one knows,

because except for 4 states, drugstores are not required to report the mistakes they make. Even in cases of serious injuries or death.

Here’s part of the interview between ABC’s Chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross and Mary Ann Wagner R. Ph, Senior Vice President, Policy and Pharmacy Regulatory Affairs of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores

Health Canada Issued a news release late last month with the title “New Information Regarding Uncommon Psychiatric Adverse Events For All ADHD Drugs” Here’s their first paragraph from their release

OTTAWA - Health Canada is informing Canadians that the prescribing and patient information for all drugs used for the management of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is being revised to provide information about the potential for psychiatric adverse events, including rare reports of agitation and hallucinations in children.

When I read how different media outlets covered the news release and read the release myself, my first thought was, what’s going on here? This is not new information, this is OLD information.

Update: CADDRA has suddenly changed the website address of the ADHD Practice Guidelines. The new one is at
http://www.caddra.ca/english/phys_guide.html

Here’s a complete answer to the above complaint I hear and read far, far too often all over North America.

The CADDRA (Canadian ADD Resource Alliance) Canadian ADHD Practice Guidelines 2006.

The site has 22 documents with 103 pages of great information. Even if you’re not Canadian, they are definitely worth a look. Tell them to download and read these guidelines and as Vancouver Psychiatrist and BC ADHD Clinic director Dr. Margaret Weiss said when she talked about the shameful 1 year wait to get diagnosed for ADHD at the BC ADHD clinic due to govt neglect and underfunding, “it’s all you need to know to diagnose and treat ADHD.”