BOSTON (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- According to the National Institute of
Mental Health, as many as 5 percent of all American children, or
about 2 million children, have attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder. Many of them rely on stimulant medications to control the
symptoms but these have many down sides. Now a new medication works
a different way.

Kale Brodie hall loves to play sports. His mom, Paige, says he's
full of creativity. But like other kids with ADHD, kale has
behavioral problems he can't control.

"If the child sitting beside him in class teases him or pushes his
papers off his desk, Kale will react negatively. He will push him
back," Paige tells Ivanhoe.

Stimulants like Ritalin and Concerta controlled Kale's impulses, but
they have to be taken throughout the day. Paige says, "I was
constantly looking at my watch, wondering, 'Do we need to give him
another dosage?'"

Now there's Strattera (atomoxetine). It lasts 24 hours, and it's not
a stimulant.

Child psychiatrist Thomas Spencer, M.D., of Massachusetts General
Hospital in Boston, says, "This is the first really new kind of
compound that's been proven and really tested for this condition.
So, it's really a big paradigm shift."

Dr. Spencer says it helps kids who don't benefit from stimulants --
especially those who are anxious, have tics, or who have trouble
sleeping. "It works primarily on a different system, in this case,
norepinephrine," he tells Ivanhoe. "It helps with inattention,
distractibility and hyperactivity," all problems Paige has watched
Kale struggle with.

"Basically, you have this screen around your brain when you don't
have ADD, and that keeps away all the distractions. But, a person
with ADD has holes in that screen. What the medicine does is it puts
up that screen. It fixes those holes," says Paige, and now they have
a new tool to patch the problem.

Strattera was FDA approved in November 2002 and is available by
prescription. One side effect of Strattera is weight loss. It also
has not been tested in children younger than 6.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts
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http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Thomas Spencer, M.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital
725 ACC Building
Boston, MA 02114

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