Supposedly, the majority of people can stay on the same dose for a long period with straight ADHD. This would be after months of dose increases with time for the body to really adjust. If the med was not quite high enough, the chosen dose may seem to work initially, and then fail when the demands on the person increase. Because of natural caution, it is easy to stop the dose tritration a little low.
Also, people with coexisting issues like anxiety; or one that experiences weight loss may not tolerate the dose that would give maximum results and not need increasing over the long run, and settle for a lower dose to reduce exacerbating the anxiety or making the appetite issues easier to deal with.
My son got 2 1/2 years out of a dose. Until he leveled off, however, we were changing DAILY. I was told by my doctor and from another ADHD board that when the child/adult is not successful at the current dose, don't wait, change immediately. I feel so bad for these children that wait until the next appointment. They suffer too long with getting into trouble for what they can't control and are on meds for in the first place.
But once you find the right one and dose, it can be a while until a change is needed.
Maybe people post more when they're having problems, so we don't hear as much from the folks where things are going well. It seems like a lot of us are frequently tinkering with dosages and even changing or adding medicines to control ADHD. Are there a batch of folks whose kids stay on the same medicine for a long time, and on the same dose for a long time? If so, what medicine and dosage are they taking? I'm asking b/c I've seen a lot of posts from people using Focalin XR who need to keep upping the dose. Maybe I'm more tuned into those posts b/c my ds takes Focalin XR, or maybe it's more common with this med. My ds also has had to keep tinkering with the dose every few months.There are people who take one med and stay there. You are right, they're not out there looking for advice. Also like Vickie says what you are on now may work great, then a new school year comes and just that transition is more than a child can handle and voila, behaviors change. In our case, we took Adderrall for a long time in the beginning. She did fine, but after a while just seemd "sad" all the time. My daughter just gets some of central nervous system side effects after continued use of stimulants (tics, affecting sleep.....etc), everyone is juts so different.