In the Introduction of the book ADD and your Money there is a section titled " The Link between ADD Medication and Financial Success". The main point of the section is to point out the benefit that medication used for ADHD should help people with organization and managing priorities. This should lead to better financial choices and improved financial management. This seems like a very reasonable premise.
What really intrigued me was that this section also cites a study titled: Effects of methylphenidate on impulsive choice in adult humans by Cynthia J. Pietras, Don R. Cherek, Scott D. Lane, Oleg V. Tcheremissine and Joel L. Steinberg. In this study "Eleven adult males with a history of criminal behavior but no history of attention–deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) participated." The men who were given a stimulant medication were more likely to choose to wait longer for a larger sum of money rather than a shorter wait for a smaller sum of money. Curbing impulsive behavior should also lead to increased financial success.
When I read this section I had mixed feelings about whether there was truly a link between ADD Medication and Financial Success. I know people who take medication for their ADD and have improved their ability to organize and make better financial choices. I also know people who are financially successful who are not on medication for their ADD. Some people I have talked with have felt that they were less inspired and productive when taking medication for their ADD, for these people it is a reasonable argument that taking medication hampered their financial success.
What I really want to know is whether you think there is a positive impact on finances after taking medication for ADD. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.
I would tend to doubt the science behind this "study" based on the information given in the abstract. First and foremost, eleven people is nowhere near enough to draw these kinds of conclusions from, imo. Secondly, they say that there is no history of ADHD, but that the subjects "differed in their sensitivity to methylphenidate" - this begs the question, how are they determining that there was no history of ADHD? My understanding is that many people end up in jail *because* undiagnosed ADHD led to illegal behaviors; the percentage of people with ADHD is much higher in prisons than in say, the local library. So how can they be "sure" that the test subjects are definitely not ADHD? Maybe this information is contained in the full study.
That being said - what the medication does is control impulsive behavior. If someone's impulsive purchase of a lottery ticket led to a huge jackpot, one might think that being impulsive was therefore good for financial success. However, the truth is that long-term, day-to-day choices are really what matters to ultimately being financially successful and this is where being impulsive is detrimental. The person with the impulsively-purchased lotto ticket is much more likely to lose money over time than to win it.
Regarding someone feeling less inspired and productive when taking medication - my suggestion would be to find an outside, unbiased way of checking that. Similar to the lotto ticket, someone who is feeling hyperactive can get a lot done in a short amount of time, thus feeling productive - but what happens when the task gets boring or the attention gets grabbed by something else? He or she might find when looking at it objectively that over the course of a day or a week, that fewer "important" tasks actually got done than with medication that allowed him or her to stay on task longer without distraction.
And yeah, I have two kids and husband with a diagnosis, so we've been there :).
Posted by: Jessica | January 06, 2011 at 10:12 AM
I'm agreeing with this. I'm back on meds again for the umpteenth time and this doctor actually explained to me that my impulse control section in my brain is nuts and told me that he has seen patients stop impusively buying large quantities of fast food after being on medication for awhile. I swear that after I got on meds this time, the impulse to buy too much of anything has gone away-for now, at least. And now, I need to balance my checkbook. :(
Posted by: Kim | August 03, 2011 at 08:35 PM