Blog | Alison Escalante MD

What Parents Need to Know About Stimulant Medications for ADHD

Last week I wrote an article for Forbes explaining some of the most important things to understand about stimulant medications for ADHD. You can read the article in full where there is a lot more information, or read the summary I’ve posted here.

Graphic of cartoon brain considering whether to take prescription medication.

Stimulant medications are the first line treatment for ADHD.

Stimulant medications are neuroprotective in ADHD

Emerging research evidence suggests that stimulant medications are neuroprotective in the developing brains of kids and teens with ADHD. That means that taking the medications when needed in childhood actually leads to better brain growth and development.

Stimulant medications work like coffee, but better

Just like caffeine, stimulant medications work on the prefrontal cortex and can help brains with ADHD regulate themselves. This allows people with ADHD to do what can be almost impossible without medication: pay attention to and perform tasks that they find boring.

Stimulants are the first-line treatment for ADHD

When prescribed with skill, individuals with ADHD find stimulants reduce their struggles with impulsivity and attention reduced while enhancing their strengths. While other treatments are valuable, none of them work as well as stimulant medications.

Stimulant medications may prevent mental health problems

Psychiatrist and author William W. Dodson, MD, estimates that by age 12, children with ADHD receive 20,000 more negative messages from parents, teachers, and other adults than their peers without ADHD. People with ADHD often carry a lot of shame, and are more likely to develop anxiety disorders or depression than others. However, when ADHD is treated with stimulant medications, people are less likely to develop mental health disorders like anxiety or depression.

Stimulant medications may prevent addiction

People with ADHD have a higher risk of developing addictions. First, use of addictive substances often begins as a way of self-medicating to manage the unpleasant symptoms of ADHD. Second, addictive substances work on the dopamine reward pathway in the brain, which happens to be more vulnerable in brain with ADHD. However, when used appropriately, stimulant medications meet people’s needs and make them less vulnerable to trying risky substances.

You or your child do not need to take stimulant medications forever

As a pediatrician, I’ve often found that people feel a lot better about trying these medications if they understand that this is not a lifetime commitment. There may be seasons of life when stimulant medications help and other times when they are not needed. The goal is a thriving life with ADHD and to know that the support it out there.

My book Sigh, See, Start is out on audiobook!

Use this book to find confidence and calm as a parent.

It was so amazing when my publisher let me know that they were putting Sigh, See, Start: How To Be the Parent Your Child Needs in a World That Won’t Stop Pushing out as an audiobook! If you prefer to listen to books (as I often do), you can find it wherever books are sold. Here’s the link to amazon/audible:

Sigh, See, Start on Audiobook

The Real Reason Teenagers Find Parents Embarrassing May Surprise You

Based on the level of disgust your teenagers express about everything you do as their parent, you might think they simply hate what you do. But that’s only part of it. There are several reasons teenagers suddenly become severely embarrassed by their parents around age 13. One of the key reasons for teenage embarrassment is both surprising and reassuring to their parents.

Pediatrician Advice: What To Do When the Daycare Calls Your Child a Biter

Toddler girl biting adult's arm. A toddler can be unfairly called a biter.

Aggressive biting in toddlers is a normal developmental stage that adult reactions can prolong or shorten. Whether your Daycare labels your child a biter or handles biting with supportive limits makes all the difference.

It might surprise you how many parents have gotten a call from Daycare that goes something like this: “Your toddler is a ‘biter’ and we are starting him/her on a behavioral plan. We may have to expel them if they don’t stop.” Parents’ inital reaction is panic, of course. What will they do for child care if the daycare kicks their child out? Child care is just getting more expensive and harder to find.

One parent criticized my book, and she has a point

When Ashley on Goodreads left a review of my book, she shared a challenge she was having applying the SIGH, SEE, START parenting method in practice. She noticed that her kids were acting up in unison or picking on each other, she struggled to parent with SIGH, SEE, START. Her problem was one I had never anticipated when I wrote the book, and I learned a lot.

Ashley thought her job as a parent was to stay calm, not just sometimes, but all the time. And even while her kids were acting up together, Ashley felt that she should intuit her children’s emotional needs and meet them right then, while they were still acting up together. And no surprise, Ashley discovered that SIGH, SEE, START did not work for her when she tried to use it that way.

As a Gen X author, parent and pediatrician, it never occured to me that parents would not START by separating warring children. I had no idea that Millenial and Gen Z parents had not grown up hearing the phrase, “Do I have to separate you two?” Because for anyone my age, it’s a given that the first step in parenting wild groups of children is to separate them. The first step in parenting, especially when we use SIGH, SEE, START, is to reduce chaos.

Secure Attachment: How Often Should Parents Attune To Kids’ Emotions?

One of the most powerful myths in parenting started in the 1990s and has been dominant ever since. This myth starts with the truth: that when children form a secure attachment to their parents they have better mental health as adults. But then it goes to far by telling parents to attune to their children’s emotions all the time. Only by staying in sync with their children at all times can parents guarantee their kids’ will turn out okay, says the myth. New research I covered for Forbes finds that this is simply not true. Instead, more parental attunement happens when something is not working in the relationship. Higher parent-child synchrony may reflect interaction problems between parent and child.

Screen Time Addiction in Your Child: How To Tell

Have you ever worried that your child has a screen time addiction? Screens are everywhere now and have become harder and harder for parents to control. In this post we’ll review how to determine whether your child is addicted to screen time. Then we’ll look at next steps to help.

Kids with ADHD have Unusual Brain Wiring, New Study Finds

Despite decades of false claims and persistent parent-shaming, “bad parenting” does not cause ADHD. A recent study from the NIH has found more evidence that ADHD symptoms are related to structural differences in the ADHD brain. Children with ADHD have differences on MRI in the number of neural connections in their brains.

I am Sick and Tired of Living with Long COVID

Today is International Long Covid Awareness Day, which is why I wrote the article “Long Covid is a disabling disease, and it’s not rare” for Psychology Today. There are millions of people like me, living with the shattering symptoms of Long Covid. Many have been sick and disabled for almost four years now. For me, it’s been over two years since Long Covid stole my career as a pediatric doctor from me.

The Best Parenting is Not Fair

How many times did you complain to your parents “That’s not fair!” as a kid? Many parents believe that they should be fair to their kids by treating them equally. In fact, if we redefine “fair” to mean that we are giving each child what they genuinely need, than treating kids equally is not fair.

Should Parents Take Expert Advice or Follow Their Instincts?

As parents, we love our kids and we try so hard to be the best parents we can. We know that the people historically raised kids, often with physical punishment or shaming words, was not good for them. So we look for good, expert parenting advice we can use to give our kids what they need.