Online Course: How to Navigate Conventional and Complementary ADHD Treatments for Healthy Brain Development

 

Who this is for

Com­bin­ing the lat­est evi­dence-based guide­lines and  reviews put for­ward by the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics with the inde­pen­dent research analy­sis and exper­tise by the Fac­ul­ty, this new course can be a valu­able resource for par­ents whose child has been diag­nosed with ADHD and also for pro­fes­sion­als seek­ing to stay updated.

The Fac­ul­ty

Dr. David Rabin­er, founder of the Atten­tion Research Update, is an Asso­ciate Dean and a Research Pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of Psy­chol­o­gy and Neu­ro­science at Duke Uni­ver­sity. His research cen­ters on the impact of atten­tion dif­fi­cul­ties on children’s aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment, improv­ing com­mu­ni­ty care for chil­dren with ADHD, the mis­use of ADHD med­ica­tions by col­lege stu­dents, and inter­ven­tions to improve aca­d­e­mic per­for­mance in chil­dren with atten­tion dif­fi­cul­ties. He has pub­lished over 50 sci­en­tif­ic papers in peer reviewed med­ical and psy­chol­o­gy jour­nals and received fund­ing for his research from the Nation­al Insti­tutes of Men­tal Health, the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol, and the US Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion. Dr. Rabin­er start­ed pub­lish­ing the Atten­tion Research Update e‑newsletter in 1997 to pro­vide par­ents, edu­ca­tors, and health care pro­fes­sion­als with a con­ve­nient and inde­pen­dent source to stay informed about the lat­est research on ADHD pub­lished in lead­ing med­ical and psy­chol­ogy journals.

Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, named a Young Glob­al Leader by the World Eco­nom­ic Forum, is the co-author of the acclaimed book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age (2013). He runs Sharp­Brains, an inde­pen­dent mar­ket research firm track­ing health and well­ness appli­ca­tions of brain sci­ence. He is a nation­al­ly-known speak­er and expert, and has been quot­ed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, New Sci­en­tist, CNN, and oth­er media out­lets. Alvaro, who holds an MBA and an MA in Edu­ca­tion from Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, pro­duces the annu­al Sharp­Brains Sum­mit, the largest glob­al and vir­tu­al con­fer­ence where sci­en­tists, inno­va­tors and pro­fes­sion­als dis­cuss the lat­est devel­op­ments in the field.

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Course out­line

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Course reg­is­tra­tion includes:

• One-year access to two record­ed lec­tures and Q&A ses­sions, each of them last­ing two hours and a half.

• One-year access to an online library with addi­tion­al resources
• One-year access to treat­ment mon­i­tor­ing sys­tem: The course includes a com­ple­men­tary treat­ment mon­i­tor­ing sys­tem for 1‑year to course par­tic­i­pants. Based on Dr. Rabin­er’s guid­ance, a soft­ware ven­dor has devel­oped an online sys­tem that enables health pro­fes­sion­als and par­ents to track chil­dren’s progress via the online dis­tri­b­u­tion and scor­ing of behav­ior rat­ing forms. Course par­tic­i­pants will receive a cer­tifi­cate that their child’s clin­i­cian can use to receive sys­tem­at­ic, reg­u­lar feed­back on how the child is doing at home and school for 12 months at no charge. The val­ue and impor­tance of treat­ment mon­i­tor­ing is one of the impor­tant top­ics that will be address in the course.
• One-year access to a pri­vate online com­mu­ni­ty to enable reg­is­tered par­tic­i­pants to inter­act with the Fac­ul­ty and with each other.

Note: Reg­is­tered course par­tic­i­pants can access these resources by log­ging in HERE.

Syl­labus

This fast-paced online course will cov­er the fol­low­ing topics:

1. How to har­ness Med­ica­tion, Lifestyle and Neu­ro­plas­ti­ciy for Life­long Brain Development

• Val­ue, lim­i­ta­tions and appro­pri­ate sce­nar­ios of use for each
• Treat­ing ADHD in the con­text of gen­er­al brain devel­op­ment: A lifes­pan approach
• Read­ing: Fact-sheet on ADHD in Chil­dren and Ado­les­cents by the Nation­al Insti­tute of Men­tal Health
• Read­ing: Study: Fam­i­lies’ Per­spec­tives on ADHD and its Treatment

2. What is research sup­port, and what are its lim­i­ta­tions? How can par­ents thought­ful­ly eval­u­ate the claims made by pro­po­nents of dif­fer­ent treat­ments, and suc­cess­ful­ly advo­cate for their children?

• Read­ing: Study finds large gaps between research and prac­tice in ADHD diag­no­sis and treatment
• Read­ing: Sen­si­ble and per­plex­ing changes in ADHD diag­nos­tic cri­te­ria (DSM‑V)

3. ‘Con­ven­tion­al’ ADHD treat­ments: Med­ica­tion and Behav­ior Therapy

• Is med­ica­tion treat­ment real­ly effec­tive? (It depends on how you ask the question)
• What does the research say about short- and long-term ben­e­fits of med­ica­tion treatment?
• What does good med­ica­tion treat­ment real­ly look like and how can par­ents obtain ‘good’ treat­ment for their child?
• What is behav­ioral ther­a­py for ADHD real­ly all about?
• What do we know about the short-and long-term effects of behav­ior ther­a­py for ADHD?
• What are the strengths and lim­i­ta­tions of behav­ior therapy?
• Work­ing with teach­ers to devel­op a good behav­ior plan.
• Read­ing: Reduc­ing the Need for High Med­ica­tion Dos­es with Behav­ior Therapy
• Read­ing: Why Being Young for Grade Increas­es Odds of ADHD Diag­no­sis and Stim­u­lant Medication
• Read­ing: Evi­dence-based child and ado­les­cent psy­choso­cial interventions

4. Alter­na­tive and com­ple­men­tary treatments

Exer­cise

• What does it have to do with ADHD?
• What are the guide­lines for opti­mal weekly/ month­ly exercise?
• Read­ing: Phys­i­cal exer­cise as ADHD treat­ment: Nec­es­sary but not sufficient

Neu­ro­feed­back

• What is neu­ro­feed­back and how does it work?
• What is the cur­rent evi­dence base for neu­ro­feed­back treat­ment for ADHD?
• Things to con­sid­er when think­ing about neurofeedback.
• Read­ing: Neu­ro­feed­back treat­ment for ADHD is gain­ing strong support

Work­ing mem­o­ry training

• What is work­ing mem­o­ry and what does it have to do with ADHD?
• What does work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing involve?
• What is the cur­rent evi­dence base for work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing for ADHD?]
• Things to con­sid­er when think­ing about work­ing mem­o­ry training.
• Read­ing: Is work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing the pri­or­i­ty for ADHD patients?

Med­i­ta­tion

• What is med­i­ta­tion and what does it have to do with ADHD?
• What med­i­ta­tion tech­niques offer the most clear evi­dence base for ADHD?
• Things to con­sid­er when think­ing about meditation.
• Read­ing: Mind­ful­ness train­ing for chil­dren with ADHD and their parents

Diet

• What kinds of diets have been test­ed as treat­ments for ADHD?
• How strong is the research sup­port for dietary inter­ven­tions for ADHD?
• Things to con­sid­er when think­ing about a dietary intervention.
• Read­ing:  ‘West­ern’ Style Diet Increas­es Risk of ADHD

Sup­ple­ments

• Vit­a­min, min­er­al, and fat­ty acid defi­cien­cies in rela­tion to ADHD
• Do sup­ple­ments work? What does the research say
• When to con­sid­er supplements
• Read­ing: A Con­trolled Tri­al of Herbal Treat­ment for ADHD

5. How can a par­ent nav­i­gate these options and obtain, mon­i­tor and help iter­ate the best care for a par­tic­u­lar child

• How to pri­or­i­tize and sequence most-like­ly-to-help inter­ven­tions, both con­ven­tion­al and complementary
• How to mon­i­tor their short-term and long-term effectiveness
• How and when to com­mu­ni­cate with health pro­fes­sion­als to iter­ate and refine care

 

Required tech­nol­o­gy

• All that is required to par­tic­i­pate in the course is a com­put­er or a tablet with Inter­net access

 

If you have any ques­tions or would like fur­ther details about the course please Con­tact Us.