Need Advice Before Seeing the Doctor

Hi Everyone,

I am brand new to this board. First, I am a school teacher, at the same school where my son attends. He has serious problems with attention, he is also extremelly disruptive, and cannot complete more than 20% of his school work. On the bright side, he is well liked by his classmates and the rest of the student body. Part of the reason is that everyone knows him because his dad works there, plus he likes to chat.

Most of his school work gets completed every evening at home. As you can imagine, evenings can be stressfull at my household. Because I am a teacher, I recognized that there were some symptoms for ADD .... perhaps not severe, but enough to be disruptive to his life, as well as his teacher's and classmates'. His teacher shares my thoughts as well .... although she won't use the term ADD... because of professional reasons.

I, along with his teacher, filled up the necessary forms, and this coming week I am supposed to meet with his doctor. Basically, I like to know if you have any "dos" or "don'ts" as far as meds. I know that some people think very little of some medicines and I want to do some research and be a little educated on the matter, when the doctor makes some suggestions.  I have done some reading on this, and another board, as well as some meds websites. Also, I did some looking around in a used books store and I wanted to know if there are any suggestions as far as books to help me be guided, or deal better with the entire situation.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Aldo 

Here is my opinion:

With my daughter, I ussually tend to feel safer with drugs that have been in the market long enough to research more long term effects. Also, beware of generic brands. They are said to have the same effect, but many people (including myself) claim the do not react in the same manner as the name brand. Stick with the real thing. Some meds, like Ritalin, have a shorter lasting effect than many other ADHD meds, but the effects are "cleaner", (I don't know how to put it....I don't mean to sound bizarre, but as an illustration is like comparing cocaine-vs-meth to ritalin-vs-adderal. By the way, I have never used street drugs, I also have ADD and recieve prescription medications. I just read a lot.)