(Dr. Alan Donsky) One of the things we always talk about in medicine is individualizing and personalizing a treatment or management plan. That there’s no one recipe that works for everybody.

First medication I went on was Strattera, and it was not good for me. It’s good for some people, didn’t work for me. Some side effects that were quite discomforting.  You need to be aware of that the first one’s not necessarily gonna be the one. Work with your doctor try to take all the time you need to try out something if it doesn’t work out try out something else, but don’t rush it too much.

(Dr. Margaret Weiss) I think that one of the things that patients have to come to understand is that when they start ADHD medication no matter how much they read it is their experiment and it’s an experiment that never stops. Depends on what you’re doing. The teacher you have that year. What comes out on the market because there’s always something new on the market. Try to find out the exact proper information about how does this work? What are the possible side effects? What do I need to be aware of?

(Laurie Dupar – ADHD Coach) and she had had to go through sort of a trial and error to find the right medication that worked for her whether it’s a stimulant or a non stimulant and also then the right dose, and when she needed to use it when was the most effective time for her to use it? Which is super important. You know everybody’s got a different story.

(Dr. Weiss) They’re finding out on a very deep level how this particular drug changes their capacity to pay attention their behaviour what it does right and also what it does wrong. It’s going to depend on what you’re doing and what you want from yourself at that particular point in time, and so medication can make a tremendous difference in people’s lives. It doesn’t make a tremendous difference in everybody’s lives, and we’ve got much better with the drug that we have available. I think the availability of many new drugs has allowed us to optimise and individualize treatment so we’re able to treat a lot more people who wouldn’t have been able to respond to the older medication.

(Dr. Lenard Adler) So picking the right ADHD medication that will fit your symptom profile in your lifestyle is important and then being sure that you know as you are treated that the dose is adequately increased and that your symptom relief is adequate. Assessing that periodically.

(Dr. Steven Kurtz) What I say to kids is I promise you I will never give up on helping you get to the endpoint. So don’t give up on yourself and don’t give up on me, and I promise you that the first thing we try will not work, but I promise you it will get closer and closer.

(Laurie Dupar) Like I said this is a tool you really need to fine-tune it. There’s always a little different component a little different twist, making it I think very difficult to have one pill, wave the wand and you’re fixed. Since I’ve been on the Vyvanse I seem to calm down. So I’m excited about that and then they were talking about adding a medication called Intuniv. So that is our next plan to add something like that. So that gave me the Wellbutrin because it would help me get off the smoke, so I got off the smoke and then started into the Adderall. Though the first medication I was on was Dexedrine and it helped but I found that particular medication I had a lot of like ups and downs as it kind of kicked in and wore off.

(Dr. Donsky) For people to personalize take control of the treatment program and decide what aspect worked for you.

(Dr. Kurtz) and I think it’s really important the message of hope and possibilities and the frank reality which is that the first thing we try always needs to be tweaked. It’s never it’s never the full thing the first time.

(Laurie Dupar) It’s typically that they’re not on the right medication or they’re not taking at a right time meaning they’re taking it too early or too late, to get the maximum benefit.

(Dr.Weiss) sometimes you can change the dose sometimes you can change the timing sometimes you can

change the formulation.

(Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD) How much you take, when you take it, and which one you take.