What ADHD medicines do, what the evidence shows about benefit and harm, and what happens when treatment stops or restarts.
1 · Start here
Medication is one part of ADHD care, not all of it. These pages explain how the medicines act on the system described in The dopamine and noradrenaline supply chain, what trials and registries can and cannot tell us, and how to plan for gaps, restarts and product changes.
How ADHD medicines act — ADHD medicines influence catecholamine signalling through different transporters and receptors. Their mechanisms, timing and clinical evidence need separate comparison.
When treatment stops — A gap in a treatment that was working can quickly undo its benefit. Here is what the evidence does and does not show, and how to plan for continuity.
Restarting after a gap — Re-titrating cautiously is usually reasonable. Changing to a medicine that has already been tried and found inadequate is a different decision, and needs reasons.
When a formulation feels different — Record product differences precisely. A repeatable difference is worth raising even when the explanation is unknown — but observation and mechanism are different claims.
Dopamine-related treatments: different jobs — Precursor supply, reuptake inhibition, transmitter release and receptor activation are different interventions. Compare the indication and evidence as well as the mechanism.
Saffron and Mucuna: what the evidence actually says — Take botanical treatments seriously enough to examine the trials, the product and the unanswered comparisons. Promising does not mean interchangeable.