April 13, 2009br /br /According to the latest results from the government’s leading, multiyear study of 579 children, the effectiveness of the popular drugs for ADHD can dissipate after 14 months of use. By the six and eight-year mark, across 30 measures of behavior and academics, children still given medication “fared no better than their non-medicated counterparts, despite a 41% increase in the average total daily dose, failing to support continued medication treatment as salutary,” says a preview of an article in the May Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.br /br /USA Today wrote that if you look around a school lunchroom these days, odds are that one out of every 20 boys, and one in 43 girls, will have been diagnosed with ADHD. More than half of those boys will be on Ritalin, Concerta or Adderall, touted for over a decade as wonder drugs that help ADHD kids behave and learn better.br /br /School officials are prohibited from implying that medication is a requirement for school attendance but teachers, more than parents or doctors, refer children for an ADHD diagnosis. Drugs are the usual consequence. Yet most teachers surveyed are ignorant about many of the drugs’ basic aspects, says a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire study.br /br /The drugs can stunt growth. After three years, medicated children have grown an average .79 inches less than non-medicated ADHD kids. They also suffer from more muscle tics.br /br /USA Today editorialized that the website of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a leading ADHD advocacy and support group, buried mention of the study in a blog without noting any findings. “Perhaps not coincidentally, 30% of CHADD’s revenue is from drug companies. Such denial risks real harm. It’s time for those with ADHD children in their care to recalibrate their enthusiasm for long-term use of the drugs and to engage in some behavioral modification of their own.”br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /Stimulant drug therapy is the most common form of allopathic medical treatment for a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/attention_deficit.html”ADHD/a. In many cases, stimulants help to control behavior, at least in the short term. Critics point out that the stimulants is “like handing speed to your child,” and there is evidence that early stimulant use doubles the risk of substance abuse in later life. There is substantial evidence that stimulant drugs increase the risk of hypertension, stroke and cardiovascular disease.br /br /Some cases of ADHD behavior have been cleared up by making a few extremely important changes in diet – adding a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/fats_and_oils.html”fish oils/a for omega 3s, removing a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/sugar.html”sugar/a, and identifying food allergies. A new modality of neurotherapy called a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/brain_training.html”BrainAdvantage™/a directly addresses brain processing dysfunction. BrainAdvantage™ is extremely effective in only 20 sessions.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-7259415426041601416?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div