Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Medication and how it works
Stopping medication rises sharply in the early teenage years. If that is where you are, it helps to know this is the usual pattern rather than a sign that something has gone wrong with your child.
The pull is understandable: wanting to be in charge of your own body, hating being the one who is different, and a parent no longer standing over the morning dose. It lands in the years when an unmanaged day carries heavier consequences. Handing over some real say, including in the question of whether to take it at all, tends to go further than tightening the reins.
This explains how treatments work. Never start, stop or change a medication because of something you read here.
Qur’an and Sunnah
'Consult with them about matters' (Quran 3:159). Consulting comes before the decision, and a teenager is precisely who needs consulting here.
فَبِمَا رَحۡمَةࣲ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمۡۖ وَلَوۡ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ ٱلۡقَلۡبِ لَٱنفَضُّواْ مِنۡ حَوۡلِكَۖ فَٱعۡفُ عَنۡهُمۡ وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرۡ لَهُمۡ وَشَاوِرۡهُمۡ فِي ٱلۡأَمۡرِۖ فَإِذَا عَزَمۡتَ فَتَوَكَّلۡ عَلَى ٱللَّهِۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُتَوَكِّلِينَ
By an act of mercy from God, you [Prophet] were gentle in your dealings with them- had you been harsh, or hard-hearted, they would have dispersed and left you- so pardon them and ask forgiveness for them. Consult with them about matters, then, when you have decided on a course of action, put your trust in God: God loves those who put their trust in Him
Qur’an 3:159read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
There is a study of why young people stop. A pharmacoepidemiological and qualitative study of cessation of ADHD drugs in the young found side effects, changing need over time and family attitudes to be the main drivers. Changing need is worth sitting with, since some of this is a reasonable decision rather than a failure to comply, which is a good reason to ask rather than assume.
Wong IC, Asherson P, Bilbow A, Clifford S, Coghill D, DeSoysa R, Hollis C, McCarthy S, Murray M, Planner C, Potts L, Sayal K, Taylor E. (2009). Cessation of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs in the young (CADDY)--a pharmacoepidemiological and qualitative study.. Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
A young person who has a say in the decision has a reason of their own to keep it going.
When not to
If stopping is followed by a sharp drop in safety at school, on the road or in mood, that needs a review rather than waiting it out.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
The old argument about medication against behaviour therapy was set down years ago. The useful question now is what each one covers.
You may hear that staying on stimulant medication for years can shift the structure of the brain itself, not only the day. It is a real line of research and it is still an open question, so hold it lightly.
The question that usually matters most is not which molecule but how many hours it covers. A medicine that has worn off by four in the afternoon leaves the hardest stretch of the day uncovered.