I am an adoptive mother of two beautiful siblings who were removed from their biological mothers care due to the drug exposure (METH) to the youngest during her pregnancy and continued exposure for about 6 weeks from breast feeding.

I am also involved in a large support community of parents who have adopted children with the same type of history.

We are noticing that a large number of our children Appear to be ADD/ADHD and many of our children are being medicated by their doctors to help with the symptoms.

My concern is that many of the medications are the SAME sort of thing my child was exposed to and I fail to see why giving a little one medication for this is really what needs to be done.

I wonder if there is any information about this link between Meth exposed children and ADD/ADHD and How people feel about the fact that the cure might be the very reason my children have new parents?

It doesn't work that way.

There's a HUGE difference between street drugs and ADHD meds.

Not too long ago, someone tried to push the idea that Adderall was as bad as street meth or that taking it would cause addiction, etc.

If you go to the now closed "Adderal omg" thread, you'll find several posts I made regarding 3 research studies covering 13 years that showed that taking ANY stimulant can reduce the chance of Substance Use Disorder by up to 85%.

For the last 19-20years, I've been a part of a free children's developmental learning and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder clinic at the rural community mental health center where I work as a child psychologist (who also happens to be an adult ADHD).

We were fortunate to be trained by Dr.Chang of the University of Minnesota.
He's considered to be among the best in the world in diagnosing FASD.

Stimulants are used because the major damage is usually done to the pre frontal cortex, which is the site of the Executive Functions.

They are the managment or supervisory part of the brain.

Once the damage has been done, irrespective of what caused it, you end up with severe ADHD symptoms.

The history of the safety and efficacy of the use of stimulants for behavior problems dates back to 1937 and has been very positive.

Here's a couple of good references:

The US Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health (Chapter 3) Disorders of Infancy, Childhood & Adolescence

The ADHD Book of Lists by Sandra Rief - very helpful references put into list form

I wish you and your kids all the best and welcome to the Forum.

mctavish23 (Robert)

Hi Anna,
I checked out your website hoping to learn more about the affects of prenatal Meth exposure on kids. Your new site is very impressive.

I have read that the attention difficulties of FASD kids that were once thought to be the same as those of people with ADHD are now known to be different. I do know that some FASD kids get some benefit from stimulant meds, but not as much benefit as ADHD kids do.

The differences between FASD kids and ADHD kids are extreme. The symptoms shown by the FASD are more pronounced and don't respond as well to meds as some ADHD kids.

It's similar to the "acquired type" of ADHD from traumatic brain inury or some type of toxicity.That type doesnt respond as well to meds as the genetic/inherited type.

Over the years, one of the phrases I've seen used to describe FASD was "kids who can't get out of jail (due to impulsivity)".

It's been a while since I've looked at the literature, so this is strictly anecdotal as far as keeping up with the research, but all the training we went thru presented alcohol as causing the most damage.

There's a very good chance that the reason there are a high number of adopted children with AD/HD is because one or both of the birth parents has AD/HD. Drug use and self-medication is very high among those with untreated and or undiganosed AD/HD. Many of the reasons why a child would be placed for a adoption are also related to behaviors associated with untreated AD/HD in teens and adults too.

There's a very good chance that the reason there are a high number of adopted children with AD/HD is because one or both of the birth parents has AD/HD. This is easy to see if ADHD is the only reason. Parental drug abuse muddies the waters and makes it more difficult to see if the "attention" differences are due to drug induced brain damage or ADHD.

Tara you're right on the money.

Most of the kids I've worked with who have been dx'd with FASD, have been adopted or raised by relatives.

Adopted kids as a group have a 30% or higher risk of being ADHD (about a 6 fold increase over the general population). While prenatal circumstances can contribute to some of that, the prevailing wisdom is that the parents of such children are more likely to be ADHD themselves. Also as in the case of crystal meth they are frequently trying to self medicate. While ADHD kids are at a higher risk than non ADHD kids of taking street drugs, those who are medicated have a lower risk than those who are not.


Scattered

Well, how does someone know if their child has ADHD or FASD? My son's birth mom was an alcoholic. I don't know if drugs were involved. My son shows all the symptoms of ADHD, but how can I tell? What kind of tests can be done and by who to find out? BTW, he doesn't have the facial features or dramatic symptoms of FAS.

Terri