DMAE and Inattentive ADHD

Will Help Inattentive ADHD? I was reviewing the most recent ADHD articles on Pubmed when I came across a review article that listed some of the non-prescription treatments and the article reported that DMAE could offer some help for the symptoms of ADHD. Apparently in the 1970s DMAE was used as a stimulant and some people with ADHD had improved symptoms while taking this supplement.

DMAE is Dimethylaminoethanol and it is one of the building blocks for acetylcholine. Acetylcholine helps with cell communication and it is a neurotransmitter. Many researchers believe that neurotransmitter issues are what causes the symptoms seen in people with ADHD.

DMAE is found in salmon and fish oil and is marketed today as a supplement that helps memory and aging. In the seventies it was prescribed by physicians for ADHD under the name Deanol and several studies reported benefits in behavior and learning at a dose of 500mg a day.  I have included a summary of a study comparing Ritalin and DMAE below.

The FDA removed DMAE which was called by the prescription name 'Deanol' from it's list of approved medications for ADHD in the early 1980s because of a lack of research on it's effectiveness and it became an orphan drug which means it was a drug that no one was interested in testing any further so it fell by the wayside.

When I trolled the ADHD forums for information on DMAE, I got a mixed bag of reports from parents and patients who reported some success and some non-success with the use of this supplement. Apparently some company named Nature's Plus makes a product called PediActive that has 254mg of DMAE as well as Phosphatidylserine and Phosphatidycholine in a chewable tablet form that is marketed for the "Active Child". The Amazon reviews for this product are few but all positive.

When I went to Amazon to find out how adults where faring on the DMAE tablets, most all the reviews reported positive results.  People reported that they were more focused, had more energy, were more productive, etc but I have found that people tend to write more positive Amazon reviews than negative ones and it is entirely possible that the folks that got no results from the DMAE tablets did not bother to write a review.

So will DMAE help ADHD Inattentive. I don't know. All indications point to this supplement being safe and well tolerated.  The only ill effect that I read about were people who reported that there dreams were more vivid.

If anyone has had experience with this supplement I would love to hear about it.  please comment and let us know. If I decide to give DMAE tablets a try, I will let you know how it goes.