Saturday, December 15, 2007

Ginko Treatment for Dyslexia

I recently came across a small research study on the use of Ginko Biloba for dyslexia. At 80mg in the morning, the majority of kids in the study did so much better within 6 weeks. I am going to be recommending it to my dyslexic patients and see if indeed we see the same results. Ginko has been studied in the elderly with good tolerance and hopefully, since kids are not as fragile as the elderly it will be ok for them. The drawback is the unknown longterm effects of this on children. What we child psychiatrists wrestle with is the lack of long term information with the medication we recommend. As opposed to common thought, not everything that is natural is safe. (just because it is natural doesn't mean it's innocuous, take lithium for example).

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