The most common drugs for treating ADHD are Adderall® and Adderall XR® (once daily), Concerta®, Daytrana®, Desoxyn®, Dexedrine® Focalin®, Focalin XR®, Metadate CD®, Methylin®, Ritalin®, Ritalin SR®, Ritalin LA®, Strattera® are FDA approved ADHD drugs for the treatment of ADHD. These ADHD drugs are stimulant prescription medications and can cause dependency.

All ADHD drugs have many side effects for children and adults. Besides the fact that ADHD drugs are a controlled substance, they also all contain dyes that have been proven to cause allergic reactions in some children actually causing ADHD symptoms. All have cardiovascular risks and can have undesirable psychiatric symptoms.

There has been sudden death in patients with heart problems, stroke and heart attack in adults, increased blood pressure and heart rate, bipolar or aggressive behavior. For children report psychotic symptoms like hearing voices or any agitated behaviors. Make sure your doctor knows about any family history of suicide or any mental illness issues such as depression, which could cause problems for someone on these types of medicines.

If your child or you are going to consider ADHD drugs as part of therapy make sure the doctor knows about any heart problems, heart defects, high blood pressure or a family history of any of these problems. Before starting any ADHD drugs your doctor should check for heart problems before starting use of any ADHD drugs and should also check blood pressure and heart rate regularly during any treatment with ADHD drugs. If there is any chest pain, shortness of breath or fainting while taking ADHD drugs call your doctor immediately.

Psychiatric side effects that could be a problem and need to be reported are a noticeable difference in behavior, bipolar disease that is getting worse, or aggressiveness or hostility and hearing voices or other psychotic behaviors.

All ADHD drugs should be used with other treatments such as counseling or other therapy such as behavior modification and alternative remedies.