ADHD FAQs

The aim of treatment is to increase the dosage until a stable or optimised level has been reached that will control your child’s symptoms with the fewest side effects.

During a medication review, the effectiveness of your child’s ADHD medication will be monitored, as well as any adverse effects experienced. Dose adjustments can also be made based on the response to treatment. Your child’s height, weight, blood pressure and pulse will also be monitored. 

If a medication review is required, this can be requested by calling or emailing your local CAMHS clinic. Your request will then be passed on to the relevant clinician looking after your child and a review can be booked once an appointment is available. 

When a repeat prescription is required, this can be requested by emailing your local CAMHS clinic and providing the following information about your child:

• Full Name
• Date of Birth
• Address
• Name of Medication Prescribed
• Dosage of Medication Prescribed
• Number of days left
• Information about any Allergies
• The best contact number to use in case we need to contact you prior to issuing the prescription

Please note that we require 14 days’ notice to process your repeat prescription request and are unable to issue urgent prescriptions on the same day as we are not an emergency service.

Coming soon: Prescriptions are written electronically and sent to a nominated chemist so you do not need to collect from the clinic

If your child has been assessed and diagnosed with ADHD by another service or organisation - NHS or private - we will accept the referral.

However, the assessment will be scrutinised by our clinicians, who will determine whether your child will require a full ADHD second opinion assessment or can be seen for review and subsequent treatment. Please note that this may take some time.

As above, we will accept referrals and pass them on to the relevant locality team. However, as stated we may need to conduct our own assessment before providing any form of intervention.

In the interim, any ongoing medication that was recommended and/or prescribed as part of the previous assessment will need to be provided by that organisation/clinician.

We will review this with you as part of our assessment, though we cannot guarantee that we will provide the same treatment, as any intervention will be informed by our clinical judgement. 

Commonly prescribed medication in ADHD

There are two main types of medication for ADHD: stimulants and non-stimulants. They work in different ways in the brain to help control ADHD’s core symptoms.

All classes of ADHD medication have possible side effects. These are often temporary and can be helped by reducing the dose or changing the timing of the dose. Stimulants can cause loss of appetite, insomnia, flattened mood, irritability, and increased anxiety.

Non-stimulants are commonly associated with nausea, fatigue, sedation and dizziness.

Both groups can also cause raised blood pressure and pulse rate, and growth deceleration. As a result, routine physical health checks are required.