ADHD adolescents who had a stroke at birth

[Cleome]

My 17 year old daughter suffered a stroke as a one-day-old baby. The technical name for it is neonatal arterial ischemic stroke (NAIS). I can’t find any information on how adolescents like her cope with the ADHD that such strokes usually end up causing. She’s a special case and I’d love to hear stories of other such adolescents and how they handle their ADD challenges. My daughter took Strattera for 2 years. Since it stopped working she’s trying a low dose of Vyvanse. She’s struggling with her math and chemistry classes right now.

[Onthemove1971]

Welcome to the group, we are excited to have you as part of this community. My husband and I, like you have a child who has other issues to cope with on top of the ADHD. There are a few ways to research this topic. The first is to type in Google both neonatal arterial ischemic stroke and ADHD. This will bring up a number of articles some appear to be out dated but they can give you some information, they may be a bit academic. The second way is to contact an association or large hospital ( Boston children's hospital) and see if they have other families like yours and reach out to them. Sometimes having another family like yours to talk to and see what they are doing can really help.

I will say having our son in counseling has really helps and he often talks about why him? And about how hard it is to be in school. This really changed my view on bad grades and the lack of empathy some of his teachers have with him.

Best of luck in your search, glad you are here.

Take care!

[Cleome in reply to Onthemove1971]

Thank you. There is so little research on grown-up NAIS kids. I’ve been googling it for years and haven’t found much on outcomes, coping with ADD, etc. Maybe I’ll contact some hospitals, as you suggested. As society has changed I’m glad 2 year community colleges are losing their stigma. I’d rather my daughter forgo 4 year college so she doesn’t have to take amphetamine stimulants, which I read stimulate middle lobe instead of frontal lobe. I want my daughter to exercise her frontal lobe as it goes through the mid-adolescent/young adult rewiring (pruning) process. I would think stimulants would, if anything, impede the frontal lobe rewiring that all adolescents undergo (?). I know ADD drugs help a lot of people, but would kids have a better chance of growing out of ADD if they never took drugs? I’d like to see some studies on that very question.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Cleome]

You have such great questions. Did you read this article?

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10....

From what I understand is that takinging the medication can help to decrease negative impulsive behaviors in the future and there is a decrease risk of drug addition...

Our son could not function without his stimulant medication so if her never ( I don't believe it) goes to college and finds a trade then that is much better than not functioning all the way through his life.

With maturity, medication and training it becomes less of an issues.when they get older. It's just if we can survive it!

Hope this helps, I think finding.out families will help you a lot.

Take care

[Cleome in reply to Onthemove1971]

Thanks for the link. You are an incredible researcher. To access the article I'd have to pay, I think it was $44. I'm going to see if I could get it through my library. Thanks again!

[Dsmith05 in reply to Cleome]

Try using Google Scholar to help your research: scholar.google.com

Also, have you looked into any of the resources here: chasa.org/medical/pediatric...

chop.edu/centers-programs/p...

I know you have a unique situation but based on my research while there is a lot of conflicting studies many suggest there are no difference in outcomes in stimulants vs no stimulants.

Here are a few:

cambridge.org/core/journals...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

And this is map of the US that show the frequency and type of treatment being used in each state:

cdc.gov/media/releases/2015...

Good luck on your journey!

[Cleome in reply to Dsmith05]

Thanks a million. I've heard about CHASA, but I never contacted them. I should. Have you read the Gene-Jack Wang study on increased dopamine transporters in people who have taken stimulants? That's what worried me. I can post link if you need it.

[Dsmith05 in reply to Cleome]

Yes, I am actually reading through a meta analysis about it right now!

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

[erinvrie31]

Our 17 y/o son did not have a stroke, but did suffer from hypoxia as an infant due to pneumonia. There is probably ADHD running in our family, but what we have learned from the research we've been able to do with neurologists and psychologists is that this partial oxygen deprivation also causes ADHD type symptoms. In his case, his doctor suspects, although causation is always hard to pin down, that his very slow processing speed as well as some of his ADHD symptoms are partly the result of this. I don't have any answers for you - sorry! wish I had them for all of us! - but I'm so glad you posted this because I have been looking for forums related to these types of problems. I'll be looking for follow up responses in this thread, and if I find any pertinent information I'll certainly post it. Best wishes!

[Cleome in reply to erinvrie31]

Thank you for your thoughts! I suppose the reason there's such a lack of research on outcomes and tips for these types of adolescents is because only a very small number of babies have strokes or hypoxia. I'd love to hear what parents found helpful in nurturing these kind of kids.

With my own daughter, I try to feed her healthy food high in protein, calcium, healthy fat, magnesium and potassium. She walks home from school most days (1.2 miles); I've read exercise can help brain growth. When she blows up (like an atomic bomb at times) I try not to take it personally since it's most likely partly due to malfunctioning neurons in her brain. I try to be supportive and loving even though some days I'm tearing my hair out when she acts super angry and obnoxious. I'm praying that her brain will rewire as well as possible in this important stage of brain development (she's 17). I do wish I could confiscate her iphone because she spends most of her free time on it and that can't be good for her brain. She does have a part time job that has her mixing with old folks. I like her to have that people contact.