ADHD Drugs Have Wider Life Benefits, Study Suggests (bbc.com) 82
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Drug treatment can help people newly diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) to reduce their risk of substance misuse, suicidal behavior, transport accidents and criminality, a study suggests. These issues are linked to common ADHD symptoms such as acting impulsively and becoming easily distracted. Some 5% of children and 2.5% of adults worldwide are thought to be affected by the disorder -- and growing numbers are being diagnosed. The findings, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), confirm the wider potential benefits of drug treatment and could help patients decide whether to start medication, the researchers say. The researchers found taking ADHD medication was linked to reductions of first-time instances of:
- suicidal behavior - 17%
- substance misuse - 15%
- transport accidents - 12%
- criminal behavior - 13%
When recurrent events were analyzed, the researchers found ADHD medication was linked to reductions of:
- 15% for suicide attempts
- 25% for substance misuses
- 4% for accidental injuries
- 16% for transport accidents
- 25% for criminal behavior
- suicidal behavior - 17%
- substance misuse - 15%
- transport accidents - 12%
- criminal behavior - 13%
When recurrent events were analyzed, the researchers found ADHD medication was linked to reductions of:
- 15% for suicide attempts
- 25% for substance misuses
- 4% for accidental injuries
- 16% for transport accidents
- 25% for criminal behavior
Say that again? (Score:3)
Superb editing.
Re: Say that again? (Score:2)
Re: Say that again? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I take a non stimulant medication. It works fine with none of those side effects. In fact I now have fewer of the symptoms you have listed, except loss of appetite. I've lost thirty pounds and no longer seek comfort in food as I once did.
Concerta only helps me for a few days, then the effects start to lessen and my ADHD ramps up again. And I would really welcome the weight loss you experienced. Would you mind saying what medication you're on?
Re: Say that again? (Score:2)
Re: Say that again? (Score:4, Interesting)
1) no, and 2) no.
If youâ(TM)re taking a dose that causes those issues then youâ(TM)re taking too much. The aim is for a dose that gives you a dopamine boost before any of those effects kick in.
No, itâ(TM)s not the only option. Another option is dopamine agonists, like Pramipexole. Yet another thatâ(TM)s coming online soon is SNDRIs.
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Methamphetamine is not amphetamine. They're different chemical compounds with diferent effects.
Re: Say that again? (Score:3)
Then they are on way too high dose. Dial it back a bunch, same benefits.
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False positives (Score:3)
With vague symptoms such as acting impulsively and becoming easily distracted and so many ads (liven AI app) for ADHD I see on YouTube how can there not be a huge amount of false positives from people doing self diagnosising.
Re:False positives (Score:4, Insightful)
Since you can't get the required prescription otherwise the 'medication' group is going to be essentially entirely people with formal diagnoses(almost certainly of varying quality; a GP mostly being willing to take your word for it and trying to get you out in under 30 minutes counts as much as 20+ hours over a period of time with a psychiatrist who falls on the somewhat skeptical side of the discipline in terms of ADHD diagnosis both count as a diagnosis and as a prescribing physician; but you will not be getting a schedule II/Class B just by answering some tiktok quiz); so allowing self-diagnoses into the study would mean that the 'medication'/'non-medication' comparison is now between groups with even more potential confounding variables, which is going to send you into methods hell for little obvious benefit.
There's probably already enough hassle with confounding factors: pharmacy availability for scheduled drugs is always a huge pain vs. unscheduled ones(allowed prescription durations, number of allowed refills without a fresh prescription, ID requirements, limits on delivery or 3rd party pickup, sometimes additional restrictions on transfer of a prescription between pharmacies); so even if it's all NHS and they can omit some of the US insurance-related stuff; so they would already have to be considering how to avoid the possibility that their study is actually "People who can, reliably and repeatedly, go through the hassle of maintaining access to medication and remember to take it more or less regularly are more pulled together than people who fail at one or more of these tasks" rather than "medication has these effects"; and adding a bunch of randos to the study would not help at all.
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There will be false positive diagnoses from professionals and there will be bad self diagnoses. But that is true of many psychological issues. What is the rate of false diagnosis? What harm comes to the person who is wrongly diagnosed? I think those are important questions.
Re: False positives (Score:2)
At least here in the UK, the diagnosis rate is around 1-2% of population. Given that the fairly well recorded in the literature rate in the general population is 5ish%, itâ(TM)s quite clear that either the UK has exceptionally outlying genetics, despite having lots of immigrant population; or weâ(TM)re actually chronically underdiagnosing. The idea that weâ(TM)re overdiagnosing it just comes from the same place that fat shaming, racism, homophobia etc come from. We all like to feel superio
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With vague symptoms such as acting impulsively and becoming easily distracted and so many ads (liven AI app) for ADHD I see on YouTube how can there not be a huge amount of false positives from people doing self diagnosising.
You've got 225 characters and almost no punctuation.
You lost track of if you wanted to use "self-diagnosing" or "self-diagnosis", resulting in both.
You were asking a question but forgot by the time you got to the end and went with a period instead of a question mark.
Have you considered that you may have ADHD?
Yes, yes, that's meant as humour not an attack.
it's not the drugs (Score:5, Informative)
Weirdly written summary.
Let's be clear: the summary repeatedly talks about the drugs being the thing that's giving all these beneficial results.
It's the suppression of ADHD that is giving these results -the drugs are apparently successful in their job.
Re: it's not the drugs (Score:3)
Yeah... the headlines I've been seeing fail to mention that the test subjects all had ADHD to qualify to get the meds in the first place.
ADHD had a high correlation with depression and the many results that can come from depression.
Hopefully articles like this don't result in it being even more difficult for the people who need them to get access to their meds, because it's a royal PITA to have CVS not willing to tell you who actually has it in stock, so you have to go from store to store... then have your
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I've had good luck with Amazon Pharmacy.
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Re: it's not the drugs (Score:2)
Ah, no idea.
Adderall is Sched 2? Didn't know that either. I've been prettylucky so far not to need any of that.
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Once the pharmacies start treating them the same way they do opiates - blacklisting doctors and entire categories of clinics - you may find it hard to find a pharmacy that will fill your prescription at all.
With opiate deaths plummeting last year, and the weirdos running the FDA now, it wouldn't surprise me if they looked to ADHD medications as the next front to open in the drug war.
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Re: it's not the drugs (Score:2)
I donâ(TM)t quite get why you single out depression - âoeADHD meds successfully treat depression in depressed ADHD sufferersâ would be a hugely significant result, especially how poorly depression meds work in general.
Re: it's not the drugs (Score:2)
Because my first diagnosis was depression ... and anxiety. Then finally ADHD... and then childhood trauma and "other personality disorder" which turned out to be something else that wasn't diagnosed til almost a decade later
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unfortunately, they stopped accepting electronic prescriptions for my ADHD meds (but not the others), so I have to go on person with paper now
That's weird. The electronic scripts are safer than paper since it's virtually impossible to forge them. Sounds like they just don't want to deal with that class of drug so they are making it inconvenient on purpose. I hated it when we had to do paper because at some point they made it illegal to mail them to the patient (at least where I live) so I had to drive 30 minutes away each month to pick one up.
I've gotten lucky with my local Walgreens. They seem to be the most reliable for me and they will also
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'Transport accidents' jumps out as the one that probably isn't unrelated to ADHD, attention is pretty critical on the road; but where there's a fairly obvious group of tired but otherwise normal drivers who would pro
Re: it's not the drugs (Score:2)
Itâ(TM)s well understood that psychostimulants donâ(TM)t have the same effect on ADHD sufferers as they do on neurotypicals. On ADHD sufferers the increased dopamine stimulates their default mode network which wakes it up enough to be able to get control over all the different things going on in the brain. Thus ADHD sufferers report that the stimulants calm them down. Itâ(TM)s also common for ADHD sufferers to report other substances that cause dopamine release like coffee and alcohol as h
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It's the suppression of ADHD that is giving these results -the drugs are apparently successful in their job.
As far as I can tell, this is not known. These drugs may have benefits (or not) when used on non-ADHD people. If these are actual benefits, that is, which I am not convinced of. People that think outside of the box and defy social norms have positive effects as well.
Re: it's not the drugs (Score:1)
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That does not work well, AFAIK.
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People have eaten grains for well over 170,000 years, if they caused issues among the general population we would have abandoned them millennia ago. Gluten sensitivity seems to be a recent phenomenon.
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The trend is clear though, nutrition isn't a criteria for in
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it's amusing how this site is full of people who self id as so smart and head of the curve but so many really are just sheep underneath
like half the posts in here may as well be written by rfk himself, so many are so quick to abandon science it's kindof disgusting
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What kind of stupidity is that? Some deranged pseudo "theory" that "grain" (I assume this is supposed to mean "wheat") is at the root of all our problem? Seriously, most cults are not this disconnected.
Re: Or you could just stop being pussies.... (Score:2)
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I doubt I can be drunk enough to fall for this crap even temporarily. What this reminds me of is the complex hallucinations some religions produce to make it harder to find out they are built entirely on hot air.
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What kind of stupidity is that? Some deranged pseudo "theory" that "grain" (I assume this is supposed to mean "wheat") is at the root of all our problem?
The connection may not be so tenuous as you think. Diets high in simple carbs are strongly associated with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and dementia. This is true to such an extent that many doctors and researchers are now starting to classify all of them as types of diabetes, because all of them have insulin resistance and its consequences at their root.
Modern North American diets are heavily centred on simple carbs such as sugars and non-whole grains. I would find it surprising if their weren't negati
Lies and False Narrative again from BBC (Score:1, Flamebait)
The "symptoms" listed wont be "Fixed" by ADHD meds, once again a false narrative from the nations most experience propagandist the BBC ( AKA British Bullshit Corporation )
The symptoms listed are not caused by ADHD and therefore cannot be cured with meds.
These symptoms are caused by the fact that neurodivergent people see and experience the world
in a different way to nuerotypicals. This makes us more suceptable to bullying, abuse, being misunderstood and our peers having misguided expectations.
Sick bastards
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Seems we have a positive diagnosis right there. Unless you admit you need help, things will not get better. And no, the world is not "designed" for anybody, that is just you trying to assign blame to justify not doing anything. The world is an average of the people in it and being neurotypical is not a sin in any way, even if you try to make it one.
Yes, it is your decision whether to seek help or not. But is your life good as it is?
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And no, the world is not "designed" for anybody
The world as we experience it, due to the influence of our societies, is designed to benefit the wealthy, maximize their profit, and keep them in power. To that end, it's also designed to reward those who help them achieve their goals, and punish or indeed eliminate everyone else.
The world is an average of the people in it and being neurotypical is not a sin in any way, even if you try to make it one.
Speaking as the voice of privilege to tell us all how to fit in will surely help!
It's not a sin to be neurotypical, but GP never asserted otherwise. Neurotypical people do often act like it's a sin to not be one of them, though, as
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You assume the world is "designed". It is not.
Speaking as the voice of privilege to tell us all how to fit in will surely help!
Why would being neurotypical be a privilege? I think you are making some mistake here. It is just the state most people are in and ignoring that is simply stupid.
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You assume the world is "designed". It is not.
Both history and the present are filled with people who have redesigned the system of the world. Very much of how it works absolutely is by design, and asserting otherwise is, as you seem to enjoy saying, delulu.
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That is BS. It assumes a level of insight and control that is not there. Not even very strict regimes like the 3rd Reich or North Korea manage to "design" most things. At best, they can install some guardrails.
But thanks for using an Ad Hominem. It nicely shows you do not even believe your statement yourself.
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But thanks for using an Ad Hominem. It nicely shows you do not even believe your statement yourself.
You don't know what "cool" means and you don't know what "Ad Hominem" means? What a fucking waste of time talking to you is.
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That is BS. It assumes a level of insight and control that is not there. Not even very strict regimes like the 3rd Reich or North Korea manage to "design" most things.
I think you may be conflating "overall end-to-end design" with on-the-fly design, some of whose parameters can be in force for decades or longer. There's also emergent design, springing from underlying shared philosophies and goals which may not even be explicit. Then there's plain old inertia - it's not design, but may mimic it.
Total aside here - watching two of my favourite Slashdot commenters duke it out is a popcorn-worthy moment.
Re: Lies and False Narrative again from BBC (Score:2)
Re: Lies and False Narrative again from BBC (Score:2)
Sorry. PS: Cyanotic birth injury and/or paternal Agent Orange exposure did me in.
Don Jr, is that you?
Faulty reasoning that turned ADHD into a disease (Score:4, Informative)
“The descriptive classification Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often mistaken for a disease entity that explains the causes of inattentive and hyperactive behaviors, rather than merely describing the existence of such behaviors,”
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It is a condition that requires help. Whether it is a "disease" or not is really immaterial.
Re: Faulty reasoning that turned ADHD into a disea (Score:2)
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Indeed. Many of these people struggle hard. Reducing struggle to reasonable levels is commonly regarded as a good thing (unless you are a fascist or follower of some other inhumane ideology). Since it can only be managed, the potentially problematic question of a "cure" that does change personality characteristics (think lobotomy or other non-reversible atrocities) does not apply.
...with ADHD (Score:2)
Why start with a group "diagnosed" with ADHD at all? Why not compare randomized drugged vs non-drugged in general population?
The term "diagnosis" could be misleading. If you check my anti-bodies there is a positive result. If you look with a microscope you can see pathologies. But a list of behavior symptoms is totally different. And committing suicide is of a different order from becoming easily distracted. The drugs and the "outcomes" are "real" (the outcomes are not focused on behaviors, but on "facts")
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Why start with a group "diagnosed" with ADHD at all?
Simple: Because unlike you these people are scientists and actually understand how to do science. You just want to confuse the issue. A common observation with mental conditions: Denial.
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The person to whom you replied is clearly a scientist, even if that is not his profession. He presents a very valid question.
You might wonder why the question "Why start with a group "diagnosed" with ADHD at all?" is a valid question, so let me clarify.
If you would run this test with sleeping pills instead of ADHD drugs, what kind of results would you see? Most likely exactly the same results. And you would see the same results with general population also, simply because sleeping pills render you unable to
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I disagree. The question is stupid. What you actually need to do is _read_ the paper, because they will have explained their approach. Examining diagnosed people comes with some caveats, and requires an estimate and insight into non-diagnosed people. But there is nothing wrong with the approach. And there is the problem that you cannot actually do this on non-diagnosed ADHD people, as they a) are hard to identify and b) are not taking drugs for ADHD.
So, no, not a scientist. Just a FUD pusher. Caveat: I am a
Get help (Score:2)
As for the other comments here, it definitely goes without saying that it is difficult to understand unless you have it. All I can say is that I wondered my whole life how people could visualize the days of the week and what they had to do during the week so easily. For me I have one appointment that isn't normal and I can't deal with it. I can't visualize
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It can be reversed? I thought it could only be managed?
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Yes. Same here. Of course this comes with a danger of over-diagnosis (because profits/greed), but still, management helps those actually affected.
Off-Lable Human Experimentation (Score:2)
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Somebody that has it would exactly claim it does not exist. Found the index-case!
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No. And you might want to look up "sarcasm".
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Also, I am concerned about the calling people with ADD deranged, when likely, they just need to do physical actives.
As an ADHD sufferer I can say that physical activities don't help except to the extent that they support overall health and well-being. That may have something to do with the fact that my affliction is of the "primarily inattentive" type.
I can't tolerate the side effects. (Score:3)
The drop in criminal behavior from these ADHD medications severely affects my tech C-suite role and totally blocks me off from starting a political career.
Anyone who does not have ADHD (Score:2)
Correlation - Causation (Score:2)
They are not the same. Apparently some people have still not heard of that little detail
Drug anyone into a stupor and a shocking result! (Score:2)
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One of the common ADHD drugs is dexamphetine (Adderall and Ritalin are examples of similar name-brand drugs). It gives you energy but helps you focus; it's widely abused by students to help them get through college. At small doses the effects aren't that different from caffeine; elevated heart rate, alertness. High doses? Well, we all know the stereotypes around meth-heads.
Numbed? Nah. Antidepressants and antipsychotics will do that, sure, but many of the ADHD drugs are pretty much the opposite.
Drugs that fix substance abuse/criminality... (Score:2)
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Suicide ATTEMPTS? (Score:2)
"When recurrent events were analyzed, the researchers found ADHD medication was linked to reductions of:
- 15% for suicide attempts"
So people on the drug could concentrate enough to actually go through and not only attempting?
Saved my Life (Score:2)
And it's hard to really talk about because look at the hate just saying you're on Adderall gets you.
On year 20+.
Never had any "hyperactivity" before. General trouble focusing, depression, anxiety. It really has been my wonderdrug and it has a limit where you simply don't *want* more rather than something like an opiate begging you to take it in the back of your mind. I consider the abuse potential for (me) to be moderate-low.
Figure I'd just be a contrary voice in the din.
Psychiatry is pseudoscience (Score:1)
Long-term side-effects of chemical drugs are worse than benefits.