Friday 21 February 2020

Attention Or Sleep, Problems with Sleep related to ADHD


You wouldn’t want to have to make that choice for children.  Many children diagnosed with ADHD are prescribed medications to help with the symptoms.  Some popular medications in use are Ritalin, Concerta and Adderall.  These medications are helping some people.  The drug companies themselves are listing sleep problems as a possible side effect.
According to a November 23, 2015 online article in Pediatrics, research analysis led by Katherine Kidwell of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that children given stimulants tended to have sleep problems more often.  One of the studies compared the sleep of children given methylphenidate (generic Ritalin) with children given a placebo.  The children who took the generic Ritalin slept an average of 20 minutes less per night.  They also found that taking a stimulant medication more often during the day caused a child to take longer to fall asleep at night.
Dr. Trevor Resnick, who is chief of pediatric neurology at Nicklaus Children’s  Hospital in Miami says that it is extremely important  that all children get a good night’s sleep for healthy brain development.  It is his belief that only a small percentage of children will develop problems related to ADHD medications though.

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