functional medicine experience w/ ADHD?

[GoldenStan]

Hello everyone. Would love to hear your experiences with functional medicine and ADHD. My 10 yo son was diagnosed three years ago. He has been on Vyvanse, Prozac, and guanfacine for most of that time. He and I are in both individual and group therapy. He has some side effects, such as skin picking, weight gain, and difficulty falling asleep on his own. Although I see a difference in his combined type ADHD with the medication, he is generally unhappy and has difficulty keeping friends. Recently, a friend suggested that I supplement his psychiatric care with functional medicine. I have also seen on this forum that some of you recommend genetic testing. I am wondering about people‘s experiences in these areas.

[2ADHDkids]

I too have been wondering about this option, but I have no advice or experience. My daughter has similar struggles, and I often find myself wondering if there are things we can do to increase her general mood baseline.

Like you, we have tried/are trying therapy, but have not been able her someone with whom she connects and/or that is helpful. She was on Vyvanse for a while, but she is now on Focalin and Guanfacine. It seemed the come down from Vyvanse only lead to harder evenings at home. We also tried Zoloft for a while, but saw no real improvement.

It seems meds can only do so much for some, but I remain hopeful that there are strategies or supplements or lifestyle changes that will help her experience more joy in life.

[Alt49]

also interested in this answer as I have similar struggles with my 7 year old

[OrangeRhymer]

I have experience for myself on functional medicine. I think it can be great *if* practiced by an actual doctor (MD or DO) or in conjunction with a doctor. There are so many “alternative” practitioners (chiropractors, etc.) claiming to be a one-stop shop for functional medicine but I think that’s I’ll-advised—no chiropractor should call themselves a doctor and be primary care. There’s definitely a place for alternative therapies (I’ve take my kiddo for acupuncture & I have gone to the chiropractor on many occasions) but I also keep up with my primary MD.

Also, if you have the ability to shop around and find a doctor who treats your child holistically and isn’t afraid to make referrals or advise you on lifestyle factors, that’s the bes. Still looking for one for my ADHD kiddo… it’s not easy.

[PurplePizza]

I would not necessarily recommend doing what we did, which was having to go it alone because our insurance wouldn’t cover a functional or integrative physician…but I will say we have seen tremendous benefit from supplements. Finally Focused by James Greenblatt MD is a great resource and gives many recommendations for addressing nutritional deficiencies.

We also paid out of pocket for hair-tissue-mineral analysis (it wasn’t super helpful), paid the $330 for the Genesight testing (it was a little helpful) and requested his pediatrician do some blood tests (really the vitamin D test was the only helpful one).

After much trial and error, we have found our son thrives with the following supplements: Omega fish oil, nutritional lithium, mood probiotics, True Hope Empower Plus multivitamin sticks, Magnesium (L-threonate), vitamin D& saffron supplements, and occasionally Zinc. With these, we saw about 70% of his symptoms disappear. Some days we add in his stimulant prescription (the lowest dose of methylphenidate/Concerta), which has maybe a 5 % improvement. But sometimes it seems to make no difference at all. I will say that by treating with supplements first, the side effects of the meds are very decreased (and at times nonexistent).

This is just our experience, obviously working with a certified functional or integrative MD would be the best case scenario. But it wasn’t available to us and we were desperate, and I have to say that the results we have seen for our son have felt miraculous (and we were very skeptical at the start).

I wish you the best of luck!