I'm 2 weeks into a 4 week stay at hospital following a complete MH crash after nearly 2 years of increased fatigue, depression, overwhelm and rarely leaving my bed for any more than a couple of hours.
I've had ADHD tests (questionnaires for myself, wife of 28 years and parents/siblings, old school reports) and my Psychiatrist concludes that my ADHD predates my 36 years old TBI. She is about to try me on medication and as per usual my memory of what she told me what the medication is eludes me but I believe it's the standard NHS amphetamine type one for ADHD in adults.
I'm currently on Agomelatine, Melatonin, Diazepam and Zopiclone which are all taken at night. I also take 2mg of Diazepam mid afternoon before my daily 1hr nap.
Does anyone have any experience of ADHD meds ?
Are there other/better alternatives to the usual amphetamine type meds ?
I'd be grateful for the benefit of anyone's experience.
Why can't I access my own medical record for free?
Being a medical professional with an ABI
Any medication/symptom advice?
Thousands of medical studies are found useless.
Access to medical records for my daughter who is 20
Is it possible that you may have been ADHD before the brain injury, but very mildly on the scale. And since your brain injury it’s been exasperated. Damage to the frontal lobe must have an effect.
Having gone through the questionnaires, school reports from as far back as 1973 and extensive discussions with therapists. The general conclusion is that I had ADHD as a child before my TBI in 1984 aged 17. It wasn't that mild though, it's just that they used different methods to deal with it back then; usually corporal punishment via a leather strap briefly attached to the hands at great speed. I had quite a bit of that 'treatment' in my school days, usually for staring out of windows; what else are school windows for ???I did well at school in maths, science and music but spectacularly poor in everything else and my TBI was in the final month of my school career.
I would hazard a guess that the TBI turned it all up to 11 because I've had the attention span and short term memory of a goldfish my whole adult life. It only took the 33 years in 2017 for my post TBI sequelae to be recognised so attending to a lifelong attention deficit problem just 3 years later is a bit of a bonus.
Pardon the dark humour, it's my well established coping strategy.
I'm a wee bit perplexed as is the usual before embarking on another medication voyage.
Yes and to think ADHD wasnt recognised back then. Seems a lot of input from professionals and after all these years they just want to help, sadly it came to breaking point before preventing this current situation. I believe ADHD medications takes longer to have recognised results it wouldnt be 3 wks, more 6wks onwards with monitoring med review possibly dose may change. I dont have any answers as everyone different and reacts differently on meds whilst taking others. But glad you are in safe place and please think positive, people who know you and professional around you want you to have positive outcome .
All the best.
My son was diagnosed with adhd at 7 he'd been hyper since a toddler but they said they couldn't diagnose properly till he was 7 and then he was seen by a child physiologist and put on Ritalin I didn't notice a great deal of difference whilst he was on it,at 11 he went to a school that specialised in treating boys with adhd but insisted on no medication just constantly keeping him active that made all the difference