| About 30% of children with ADHD also have | | | | his ADHD may still improve his reading |
| some form of reading disorder, such as | | | | ability significantly. |
| dyslexia. Recently, a study was done to | | | | |
| examine whether or not ADHD treatment helped | | | | The results of the study were not all good, |
| these children with their reading problems. | | | | however. A number of children had side |
| The study was funded by the pharmaceutical | | | | effects from taking the medication, though |
| company, Eli Lilly and Company and was done | | | | none of them serious. Yet Strattera is known |
| using their flagship product, Strattera. | | | | to cause some serious side effects, including |
| | | | abnormal mood fluctuations and even suicidal |
| In this 16 week study compared two groups of | | | | thoughts. |
| ADHD children. The first group consisted of | | | | |
| 20 children with ADHD who had no diagnosed | | | | Conclusion |
| reading disorder. The second group consisted | | | | |
| of 36 ADHD children who also had a diagnosed | | | | The results of this study suggest that a |
| reading disability. | | | | child's ADHD interferes with the child's |
| | | | normal ability to read. I say this because |
| After taking Strattera for 16 weeks, both | | | | even children with no known reading |
| groups of patients showed almost 50% | | | | disability were able to make significant |
| improvements in their ADHD symptoms like | | | | gains in reading level just by receiving |
| inattentiveness, hyperactivity and | | | | treatment for their ADHD. If this is true |
| impulsivity. Additionally, children who had | | | | then it should not matter how you treat the |
| a reading disorder jumped two years in | | | | ADHD, as long as you do something to treat |
| reading skills from their level before the | | | | it. |
| study. Interestingly, the children without | | | | |
| reading disabilities also improved their | | | | With that in mind, significant improvements |
| reading skills by almost a year and a half. | | | | in reading ability should occur when you use |
| Improvements in reading ability as well as | | | | other treatments for ADHD, such as Ritalin, |
| reading comprehension were shown in both | | | | other stimulants, or even natural ADHD |
| groups. Also, advances in spelling ability | | | | treatments. Since no one has yet to |
| were recorded for both groups. The ADHD | | | | investigate the use of other treatments for |
| group jumped almost nine months and the group | | | | treating ADHD and reading disorders, no one |
| who had a reading disorder along with ADHD | | | | can say for sure whether or not this |
| jumped almost 10 months. | | | | speculation is true. |
| | | | |
| This study is significant for a number of | | | | All that we really know so far about the |
| reasons. First of all, up to 30% of ADHD | | | | connection of ADHD and reading disorders is |
| children also have reading disabilities. | | | | that in one small study, ADHD children both |
| While there is no real evidence that having a | | | | with and without reading disabilities were |
| reading disorder makes a child's ADHD | | | | able to make significant gains in their |
| symptoms any worse, it definitely has a | | | | reading level when their ADHD was treated. |
| negative impact of school performance. The | | | | This study points out that it is extremely |
| study also shows that even if your child does | | | | important to treat ADHD and that such |
| not have a known reading disability, treating | | | | treatment should help school performance. |