Medicating kids with add and adhd disorder - Essay Example

It is complex syndrome of impairments related to the development of brain cognitive management systems or executive functions. It affects a person’s organization skills, concentration, focus and prolonged attention on a task, processing speed, short-term working memory and access recall, sustained motivation to work and the appropriate management of emotions (Brown: 14) In analyzing the human brain, the frontal part of the cortex is responsible for thinking, problem-solving decision-making and behavior control.

This area is affected in individuals with ADHD (Hammerness: 52). Their impairment is related to problems in the release and reloading of two crucial neurotransmitter chemicals made in the brain: dopamine and norepinephrine. Such chemicals facilitate the communication within neural networks that control one’s thinking (Brown:15). Because of their impulsive and inattentive nature, it is important to come up with interventions that can help people with ADHD to be more in control of their behaviours.

On one hand, the option of giving them medication to augment their brain function deficits is a sensible way to help them manage their disorder. On the other hand, some people, especially educators, do not recommend medicating individuals, especially children, diagnosed with ADHD and instead, recommend non-medicated intervention alternatives. In terms of medicated interventions, Brown (16) contends that certain medications have been manufactured to compensate for the inefficient release and reloading of essential neurotransmitters at countless synaptic connections in the brain.

Individuals with the ADHD disorder have experienced remarkable improvement in their functioning when they are treated with appropriate doses of such medications. These medications alleviate symptoms only for the time when the medication is active in the brain, thus helping the individual in most self-management tasks. Hammerness (55) reports that stimulant medications such as Ritalin which is a methylphenidate are effective helping children with ADHD to be calm and focused. These stimulants increase the neurotransmitter messages from one neuron to another.

For example, if the brain cells in the area responsible for attention are not getting enough messages between them then the brain does not function well and does not direct the individual’s attention to focus on his assigned task. When the individual takes the medication, it gets absorbed into the bloodstream then travels to the brain where it works to improve attention deficits. Stimulant medications have been proven to improve ADHD symptoms of 65-75% of children who take them (Hammerness: 55).

Such medications provide children with more control of their bodies, their speech and their focus. They need to be part of the team deciding about the use of medication for their condition because when they grow up, they have to make their own decisions about their own treatment. The use of medication in helping individuals with ADHD manage their condition has been greatly welcomed when a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in November, 1990, reported that ADHD is a neurologically based behavioural disorder that is best treated by stimulants (Mayes & Erkulwater: 315).

In general, vast research provide evidence that ADHD medication are safe especially when administered over short-term use. On the other hand, some camps are against the use of medic