In a recent post, I blogged about my surprise that my daughter’s IQ continues to increase despite the fact that she has FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.) A reader wrote an interesting comment about her child who is diagnosed with inattentive ADD. She said that their family psychiatrist told them to expect their child’s IQ to increase after she had been on medication for a while. While I had never heard this before it really could help to explain my daughter’s IQ increase.

Momtomany wrote;

“Actually, just the medication alone can help. Our psychiatrist told us that we could expect to see a jump in our child's IQ scores, once she was on medication for a while (inattentive ADD). We did-- about an increase of 10-12 points.”

Our daughter has been on medication for ADD for several years. Interestingly, a few years ago she had an IQ test. One of the recommendations of the psychologist who tested her was that medication might help her to concentrate and stay on task. At the time, as well as during the test, she was on 54 mg of Concerta and 5 mg of Zyprexa. Therefore, we found his recommendation a bit amusing.

Sometime later, I noticed that my daughter was digging at her calves and making them bleed. Then she began picking holes in her scalp. Somewhere, I learned that excessive scratching and digging could be a negative side effect of ADD drugs such as Concerta, Adderall, and Ritalin to name a few. The next time we visited the psychiatrist we discussed the problem. He decided that we needed to decrease her Concerta. However, at the higher dose, she was still complaining to him that she could not concentrate to complete her schoolwork.

That is why he decided to add Strattera to her regimen at suppertime everyday. For a little over a year now, my daughter has been taking 60 mg of Strattera, 5 mg of Zyprexa, and 30 mg of Adderall. She has told her psychiatrist on several occasions that her attention has improved. Unfortunately, I have noticed over the past couple of weeks that she is beginning to dig herself again.




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