Sonia Gray

Yes, they do.

It's comforting to know that clinicians like Daryl Lee think so carefully about the best treatment programme for an individual and take a cautious approach to medication.

To find out more about anxiety and the best treatments for it, I turned to a regular guest on this series and he was one step ahead of me.

That's Professor Dave Cockhill, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and a world-leading researcher.

But Dave says therapy does sometimes need to be tailored for neurodivergent young people.

After the break, Dave Coghill discusses non-stimulant ADHD medication.

Plus, food colouring, sugar, brain training.

Do they have an effect on children with ADHD?

Are you good at getting them yourself?

That's a clip from episode 24 of this podcast, which followed 11-year-old Tilly as her ADHD stimulant medication kicked in.

Professor Dave Colkill was in that episode too, explaining the ins and outs and nuances of prescription meds like Ritalin and Vyvanse.

But he was keen to add to this, because there are other options for ADHD medication treatment.

We don't hear a lot about them, but in some cases they're a much better fit.

Yeah, let's go to the non-stimulants.

And effective across the whole day means there's no crash.

So you're avoiding the irritability, the exhaustion and the mood drops that can come when stimulants wear off.

And non-stimulants tend to be gentler on the nervous system, so they can be a good option if there are sleep issues or anxiety.

So just to nerd out a bit with effect sizes.

I'll spare you that nerdy discussion.

But effect sizes essentially show how well a drug works rather than just if it works.