I am a certified academic language therapist who works with this population everyday. I am very familiar with this medication and others. I SEE them at work. It is my opinion that Strattera can be effective for some people but not for a large majority of them. It doesn’t seem to work for a very long period of time. It appears to “wear off” over a few months. I have written a book called, OF DIFFERENT MINDS, (www.ofdifferentminds.com) that explains all dimensions of these disorders and how they affect the whole family as well as the individuals that are suffering from them. I believe that meds. are a great tool in coping and increasing the learning potential but unfortunately strattera has not proven to help the masses that it claims.

Parents must remember to get proper testing to be sure what learning differences that they are really dealing with and to what severity. To get a true and accurate diagnosis a parent MUST go to a Neuro- psychiatrist or a neurologist that specializes only in this population. Otherwise parents and children may find themselves on the medication merry-go-round. These specialists will give the proper doses and success is more long lasting.

I look forward to your comments.

I’ll recommend this article to his parents , unfortunately their still in denial , the clung on to the fact that he’s very intelligent and kept filtering out the fact that he’s ADHD

Great question – I am going to make this a whole post in and of itself.

Even though I am not sure about the answer – we will see if any of our readers knows…

Thanks again
Angie

Thank you for the great question.

If your son has ADHD and a Reading Disorder (dyslexia) and he is
taking Adderall XR, the question you need to ask is:

Is he doing great with the treatment we have in place now?

If the answer is yes, then there is no need to change the medicine.

If the answer is no, then you need to evaluate all aspects of the treatment:
1) what supports are in place for the learning disability
2) what strategies is the school using to help with academic success
3) what are you doing at home to help
4) and the medication
etc.

One main point I want you to understand is how scientific information is discovered: It is one study at a time, and each study has to be evaluated in the context of all of the previous studies.

So, just because this study shows that Strattera helps ADHD with Reading Disorder (Dyslexia), doesn’t mean that you should stop your son’s Adderall XR and switch him to Strattera, especially if he is doing well with the current medicine.

I hope that helps.