medication-treatment

What should come first to treat ADHD in children, behavior therapy or stimulant medication?

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Stim­u­lant med­ica­tion treat­ment and behav­ior ther­a­py are cur­rent­ly the two child ADHD treat­ments with the strongest research sup­port. How­ev­er, when par­ents begin treat­ment for their child, or when pro­fes­sion­als are ini­ti­at­ing treat­ment with a new client, there is no research to guide the deci­sion of which approach to begin with.

Is it bet­ter to start with med­ica­tion treat­ment and add behav­ior ther­a­py if need­ed? Or, should behav­ior ther­a­py come first with med­ica­tion added if the child’s response is not suf­fi­cient? Or, is it always prefer­able to begin with com­bined treat­ment? [Read more…] about What should come first to treat ADHD in chil­dren, behav­ior ther­a­py or stim­u­lant medication?

Consistent use of ADHD medication may stunt growth by 2 inches, large study finds

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The Mul­ti­modal Treat­ment Study of ADHD (MTA Study) is the largest ADHD treat­ment study ever con­duct­ed — near­ly 600 7–9‑year-old chil­dren with ADHD were ran­dom­ly assigned to one of four interventions:

1) Care­ful­ly mon­i­tored med­ica­tion treatment;

2) Inten­sive behav­ior therapy;

3) Med­ica­tion Treat­ment com­bined with Behav­ior Ther­a­py; or

4) Com­mu­ni­ty Care (par­ents obtained what­ev­er treat­ment they desired).

After 14 months, results indi­cat­ed that [Read more…] about Con­sis­tent use of ADHD med­ica­tion may stunt growth by 2 inch­es, large study finds

Studies reinforce the critical importance of ADHD treatment monitoring

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As the new school year approach­es, let me high­light the essen­tial val­ue of ADHD treat­ment mon­i­tor­ing. Even when a child’s treat­ment has been going well, response to treat­ment can change over time. This is true for med­ica­tion treat­ment, or any oth­er treat­ment a child is receiv­ing. By reg­u­lar­ly mon­i­tor­ing how a child is doing at school, par­ents and pro­fes­sion­als are alert­ed [Read more…] about Stud­ies rein­force the crit­i­cal impor­tance of ADHD treat­ment monitoring

Study: Common medication treatments for PTSD can increase the risk of developing dementia

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Drugs for PTSD linked to increased risk of demen­tia (The Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Journal):

“Cer­tain psy­chotrop­ic drugs used to treat post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD) increase the risk of devel­op­ing demen­tia, includ­ing in patients who do not have PTSD but take the drugs for oth­er con­di­tions, study results pub­lished in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Geri­atrics Soci­ety [Read more…] about Study: Com­mon med­ica­tion treat­ments for PTSD can increase the risk of devel­op­ing dementia

How children’s ADHD symptoms affect parents’ feelings & parenting behavior

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parenting——-

ADHD in chil­dren puts stress on par­ents. In fact, par­ents of chil­dren with ADHD report greater par­ent­ing stress, less sat­is­fac­tion in their par­ent­ing role, and more depres­sive symp­toms than oth­er par­ents. They also report more neg­a­tive inter­ac­tions with their child. This is cer­tain­ly not true in all fam­i­lies where a child has ADHD but instead reflects aver­age dif­fer­ences that have been found.

How do ADHD symp­toms in chil­dren affect par­ents’ feel­ings about par­ent­ing and their behav­ior toward their child? [Read more…] about How children’s ADHD symp­toms affect par­ents’ feel­ings & par­ent­ing behavior

‘Navigating ADHD treatments’ course starts today

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Dr. David RabinerHel­lo,

If you are among the many sub­scribers who reg­is­tered for the How to Nav­i­gate Con­ven­tion­al and Com­ple­men­tary ADHD Treat­ments for Healthy Brain Devel­op­ment online course, I appre­ci­ate your inter­est. We have put togeth­er a cur­ricu­lum that I believe you will find to be inter­est­ing and help­ful. [Read more…] about ‘Nav­i­gat­ing ADHD treat­ments’ course starts today