Thursday, October 16, 2008

Adderall ; It Works!

Hi All,

As many of you know, Jessie's rehab neurologist recommended Adderall for Jessie to help her focus, especially while at school. I wrote about this several weeks back, and promised an update. Well, here it is. Adderall Works!!! at least for Jessie.

Here's how we came to that conclusion. When school started in August, we started an unofficial Blind Study to evaluate Jessie's performance on Adderall (2 different doses), and none at all. The results were very obvious after only a few days, but we kept up with the study, to make sure our sample size was large enough.

The Study: For seven weeks, Jessie's 1st grade teacher would give Jessie a "Focus" grade every day at the end of the school day. She would not know if Jessie was on 5 mg, 10mg or 0 mg of Adderall. At the end of the trial, the results were striking.

On average, when Jessie was on 0 mg, her "focus" grade was a "C", on 5 mg a "B", and on 10mg an "A". So Jessie will continue on Adderall, but we may look at the time released version (Adderall XR), as her focus tends to diminish as the day progresses and the medication begins to wear off. There is also a similar drug called Vyvanse which may help to get her through the early afternoon at school. We don't give her Adderall during the weekends.

So bottom line, Adderall is good for Jessie. It may or may not be good for other kids, and we have no idea the long-term affect it has on kids who have had Rasmussen's Encephalitis. We're just going to have to take that chance. We'll keep you posted.

Peace and Blessings,

Cris

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Chris, how were the meds given. Was it 10 one week and 5 the next or did it change randomly each day. Let me know.

I glad things are going so well for you all. I enjoy the pics and the updates. Much love to you all. Shelly

LeeAnn said...

I'm glad the Adderall is working for Jessie. Another blessing from God!
LeeAnn
Richardson, TX

Anonymous said...

It is wonderful you have found help for her. My only question is why you would not want her to have the benefit the meds provide on the weekend? For these kids the medicine is not a toxin but rather a necessity. More and more experts are recommending 24/7 treatment, like those who have to take insulin!