Assessing and Treating Patients with ADHD Research

She essentially has a short attention span. The parents offer that their child hardly shows temperamental behaviour, is never defiant and behaves normally while home. Subjective and mental state exams turn out normal. An assessment of the condition leads to the diagnosis of ADHD. With this, the following paper has been designed to review the management and treatment of the client in the provided case; as well as review the ethical issues relating to the management of the case. However, the attention lasts only up to the afternoon periods, after which she mentally wanders off again. Overly, her performance in class has improved. She also has an increased heart rate, recording a pulse rate of 130 bpm as one of the side effects of the medication, which was not anticipated in the treatment plan.

Decision 2 With the perceived success of the medication with minimum side effects on the client, the overall decision is to increase the dosage through the switch to Ritalin LA to 20 mg in the morning. The previous dosage was only effective in the morning hours and given that the medication is the form of extended-release capsules, a higher concentration will have a longer effect. With this, the dosage of Ritalin LA was recommended to be maintained for another four weeks, after which evaluation would be done to ascertain effectiveness. The study offers that the medication should be maintained for at least 12 weeks before full effectiveness can be assessed and ascertained. As the medication was sufficient to last the client the whole day, there was no need to increase the dosage concentration.

It is often recommended that stimulant medications be issued at the lowest possible concentration that proves to be effective in the management of the associated symptoms (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2018). As per her age, her heart-rate still falls within the normal range, and an EKG would not ideally be indicated based on the heart-rate that was recorded. The very fact that the condition can be caused by various extrinsic and intrinsic factors offer that the management options target the symptoms and not the underlying cause. This offers yet another ethical concern. References Harrison, D. A. , & Ratzliff, A. , & Zito, J. M. National trends in ADHD diagnosis and treatment: comparison of youth and adult office-based visits.  Psychiatric Services, 67(9), 964-969. Pelham Jr, W.