
They need help from coaches and counselors with specialized experience in ADHD to offer the range of services that most families need. This type of planning and monitoring is a tall order for any clinician. Consequently, most clinicians must do case coordination as part of follow-up appointments, which may be reimbursed by insurance. This coordination of professionals takes a lot of time, which is usually not reimbursed on its own by insurance companies. When the medication is stabilized and a comprehensive treatment plan developed, your pediatrician or family practitioner becomes the coordinator of a multidisciplinary treatment team. Most medication adjustments (and initial education) can be managed by an experienced clinician in the first three to five appointments. Learning this skill often requires help from a coach, counselor, or therapist - other members of the treatment team.
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In order for stimulant medications to be fully effective, the individual with ADHD must still learn how to get engaged on demand. Stimulant medications are great at one thing: They keep you focused when you are engaged with a task. Every standard of care is clear about this: Medications are not enough by themselves. Medication gets you in the game, on a level playing field, but you still have to learn the rules. The prescription is not the end of the process it is the beginning of it. They repeat over and over that the medications, as good as they are, will be only the first step of many in mastering ADHD. Savvy clinicians try to nip medication dropouts in the bud. When the medications fail to work magic, patients conclude, “ I tried medications, and they don’t work for me.”

Most people hope that the medications are going to fix everything immediately. Medication is the only treatment that many people try (or it is all that they are offered). People just “wander off,” don’t fill the next prescription, and don’t book the next appointment with their doctor. For most, it isn’t a conscious decision to stop. This is the worst rate of treatment retention in medicine. Nine months into treatment, only 13 percent of medication responders are filling their prescriptions or doing any non-medication treatments.

Half of people across all age groups who start an ADHD medication never fill the third prescription. This inability to stay engaged that defines ADHD also prevents its treatment. They can’t get anything done because they jump from one distraction to the next. Though expensive and time-consuming, this solution is the best insurance that your investment in getting a diagnosis and effective treatment will pay off.įorty years ago, ADHD was defined as “an inability to sustain progress toward a goal.” People with an ADHD nervous system finally get started after a lot of procrastination, then are distracted from what they are doing by the next thing that crosses their minds. The research we do have, however, is consistent: The most effective thing we can do is check in with clinicians more often - in person or via a telemedicine appointment. So why do so many people stop taking them, and what can be done to prevent this? Little research has been done on why people do not stick with ADHD treatments. Medications for ADHD are among the safest and most effective treatments in medicine.
