Caffeine and Gingko Biloba for ADHD?

Get an expert's opinion on the use of caffeine or gingko biloba as treatment for hyperactivity or attention problems.

Can caffeine and ginkgo biloba work to help our son's hyperactivity and sometimes inability to focus? I'm concerned about having him labeled as ADHD.

There is no medical study that I know of that has validated the use of caffeine or gingko biloba as treatment for hyperactivity or attentional problems. For general information about treatment options for children with ADHD, read ADHD Treatments: How to Be a Wise Consumer or look at the website for CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders) at http://www.chadd.org. At that site, you can download a copy of CHADD's Fact Sheet #6, "Assessing Complementary and/or Controversial Interventions."

For more than 20 years, Eileen Marzola has worked with children and adults with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders, and with their parents and teachers. She has been a regular education classroom teacher, a consultant teacher/resource teacher, an educational evaluator/diagnostician, and has also taught graduate students at the university level. Marzola is an adjunct assistant professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Hunter College of the City University of New York. She also maintains a private practice in the evaluation and teaching of children with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders.

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