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Be patient
Track your feelings
Cut back on
(or eliminate) caffeine
Use visual cues
Attend
follow-up appointments
Expand your care team,
if needed
Be patient
Cut back on
(or eliminate) caffeine
Use visual cues
Attend
follow-up appointments
Expand your care team,
if needed
Track your feelings
Be patient
It can take up to a month to truly judge how effective a new medication is. But
if you feel significantly worse in the first week, alert your doctor immediately,
says Goodman.
Track your
feelings
Tracking how you feel at specific
times of the day helps your doctor determine if you need a different formulation (timing of release), rather than a different medication, says Stephen Faraone, MD a distinguished professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse and the president of the World Federation of ADHD.
Cut back on
(or eliminate) caffeine
Caffeine can mimic or worsen side effects such as jitters or a racing heart, Goodman notes, making it hard to tell if the new medication is working correctly.
Use
visual cues
Medication doesn't work if you don’t take it, so Goodman recommends using visual reminders to stay on top of the dosing schedule. “Velcro your pill bottle to the bathroom mirror, or set a phone alarm,”
he says.
Attend
follow-up appointments
Your doctor will recommend regular
follow-ups to monitor your progress,
assess symptoms and determine whether the switch was successful.
Expand your
care team,
if needed
"If your new treatment plan still isn’t working, and your doctor only seems familiar with one or two medications, it might be time to find a specialist,” says Dr. Faraone. “The ADHD toolbox is full of tools, but your prescriber needs to know how to use all of them.”