Q and A How stimulants can help ADHD
Q & A: Examples of medication responsive biological driven mental health disorders: ADHD
What are some of the features of medication responsive biological based mental health disorders, that shouldn’t be missed, because could have such a good outcome if appropriately treated ?
There are mental health disorders that are so loaded because of genetics and brain chemistry that the biology of them responds in a remarkable way to medication treatment , so that medication should be considered the first choice. The best results are when the disorder is not complicated by extreme severity of one or more of its symptoms, and exists by itself not complicated by other disorders or factors. They share three basics features 1. A theoretical brain chemistry cause that has a relatively specific medication responsiveness. 2. Severity in the mild to moderate range, and 3. Not complicated by other factors environmental, psychosocial, or other physical or mental health disorders. These factors may need to be treated first, and can over the power the medication would have on brain chemistry, the intervening modality between environment and the “mind”.
Can you illustrate this with specific disorders and usual medications used?
It not so much a medication but a classes of medicine, the one that is best can only be determined by repeated trials. The actual classes and their uses, and the specific medications are discussed elsewhere. Let start with the disorders than one can see the most dramatic response with the appropriate medication class. In fact some of these responses are the most remarkable in all of modern medicine. One could use the various disorders that appear at first to be classic uncomplicated ADHD, and how one tells them apart, and how they have different medication responses to illustrate this point, or look at diagnoses individually.
Where would you like to start?
Let’s begin with an individual diagnosis, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or classic uncomplicated ADHD which should have an excellent response to stimulant medication, so much so I like to conceptualize it Classic Uncomplicated Stimulant Responsive ADHD. Here you have a child, adolescent or adult of any age who may or may not be all that active, but they usually are, and there is a primary defect in concentration not caused by any other disorder, associated with not thinking about the consequences of one’s behavior. Once the right stimulant is found at the right dose, within the hour the same persons stays focused on what they couldn’t previously, their body and mind has slowed down, so they can now think before they say or do something.
There can be improvement that fast?
Yes, this is a very biological driven disorder, and once you correct the biochemical problem you see the results for the duration of the medicine effect, which can be anywhere from 3 to 24 hours depending on the preparation used. It is like putting on glasses, they are on you can focus, take them off and you can’t, here the same applies to the mind focusing, the medicine works, you focus, the medicine wears off, you can’t again.
Can you give some examples?
The struggling B and C student becomes an A student, the professional man who is great at what he does, but could not stay focuses on needed paper work now does it in minutes , what used to take hours, and is making better business decisions because he now thinking more about them and is less impulsive, the house wife who couldn’t balance her check book which she was always misplacing, because of lack of focus, now on a stimulant doesn’t lose the checkbook that she now balance in minutes, all examples of the robust stimulant response of ADHD of the Classic variety. People who previously couldn’t easily sit still, pay attention, or didn’t think before they said or did something now can do all of that in less than hour with the medication, and as a bonus they have less of a short emotional fuse, and now seem to be learning from their mistakes. These are all real life example of the remarkable effect of these medications on ADHD.