Posted by Leonardo on January 25, 2001, at 7:53:34
In reply to Re: Prescriptions for ADHD stimulants, Ritalin etc, posted by Shell on January 24, 2001, at 11:46:15
Hi Shell
Many thanks for your thoughtful responses. I'm not sure if many adults in the UK are getting Ritalin etc for ADHD. I personally know of one adult who gets dexedrine for ADHD (one of my son's teachers, who helped pinpoint that he had ADHD!) I need to do more research on the ADHD web sites, I guess, and try to contact my son's teacher aboout her experience.
But I think it is common for children in the UK to stop getting Ritalin when they reach adolescence, never mind reaching 18! So the question of continuing it into adulthoodprobably doesn't arise much in the UK so far.
I scored 18/20 on one adult ADHD checklist I saw, I don't think it was a proper diagnosis form though. Do you have the URLs of any good sites where I can follow up?
I did have the concentration/attention problems way back into my school days, but mostly I was bright enough to get around them. I didn't have the hyperactivity component, but I did have many of the other symptoms. Proving it back to age 7/8 would be tricky though. In retrospect I think my first run-ins with depression were due to an inability to cope with university/work demands due to concentration problems when I lost the familiar support of my school days.
I don't think DSM-IV is applicable in the UK, and like I said, I don't think adult ADHD is yet recognised as a real condition in the UK. My Pdoc seems sufficiently switched on to accept it in principle and bend the rules - he has already let me continue taking deprenyl as trial AD, even though that also is not approved in the UK for depression (I bought that on the net).
I am worried that I might nevr get to try stimulants for the reasons you describe (ie he might always argue its related to the depresion). Which is why I wanted to do trial of Ritalin to see if it is worth stepping up the pressure!
I am personally convinced that I always have had ADHD-inattentive, but I guess I will never be sure unless I get to trial the drugs. It is possible as you say that the positive boost I had to the few tablets I took was just the same buzz anyone gets out of taking a stimulant. But the fact that it works so well for my son, and that ADHD would explain so many of my problems, makes me think it was a real response.
I love your theory about why ADHD is more common in the US than the UK (apparently), that it was proportionately more ADHD people who emigrated because of novelty seeking! I don't imagine it accounts for the whole difference, but it could well be a real effect. I read somewhere that ADD would not necessarily have been a disadvantage to ancient man - sitting round the fire otside your cave etc, it would be an advantage to be distracted by the noises of fierce beasts prowling nearby. So its not surprising that the tendency has been passed down the generations.
If your theory is true, it may account for another puzzle I have - my real surname is much more common in the US than it is in the UK! So if ADHD runs in my family line, maybe a lot of us emigrated to the US when we had the chance!
Best wishes
Leonardo
poster:Leonardo
thread:52294
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010122/msgs/52498.html