Title: Brain Exercises to Cure ADHD
Author: Amnon Gimpel, M.D.
Publisher: Jonathan David Publishers, Inc.,
What – another book about ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)? Some of us have an entire bookshelf of these!
Perhaps Dr. Amnon Gimpel’s latest tome is at least a bit different – for he’s no “Gimpel the Fool.”
For starters – Dr. Gimpel, who is a board-certified psychiatrist and neurologist with over 30 years of academic and clinical experience, both here in the U.S. and in Jerusalem, doesn’t categorically deny the value of psychotropic medications. In fact, he very specifically tells us (Chapter 6, page 73) that Ritalin and other well-known medications are quite effective in 70-80 percent of the cases, and that Ritalin and the other major well-known medications have proven to be safe over a period of more than a half-century.
But, he points out, psychotropic and other medications don’t come completely without consequences. As I can personally attest – Ritalin (and its derivatives, including Strattera, Adderall, etc.) can cause some degree of stunting of normal growth of adolescents – who may then require a regimen that could possibly include human growth hormone to help these young patients “catch-up.”
Dr. Gimpel explains that the child, adolescent or young adult (even some adults) is actually suffering from brain delays in some portions of the cortex, which may be treated with cognitive therapy and “Brain Exercise Therapy.” His very comprehensive book, which is quite easy to read even by the layperson, but which is edited and formatted like a textbook, lays out a system easy enough for the ADHD patient’s parents and loved ones to follow for guidance in treatment.
As a person who himself was diagnosed with ADHD many years ago (they used to say we didn’t have zitzfleisch) and who has himself seen it in close family members, I myself heartily endorse Dr. Gimpel’s book to a coveted place on our bookshelves.
This nearly 300-page book is currently on sale in many local and Judaica bookstores.
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