non-pharmacological

Does ADHD treatment enable long-term academic success? (Yes, especially when pharmacological and non-pharma treatments are combined)

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Aca­d­e­m­ic dif­fi­cul­ties are one of the most impor­tant adverse con­se­quences of ADHD, and they fre­quent­ly con­tribute to par­ents’ deci­sion to seek treat­ment for their child. Whether treat­ment con­sis­tent­ly yields a pos­i­tive impact on long-term aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess is thus an impor­tant issue; how­ev­er, the answer to this ques­tion has been some­what controversial.

A study pub­lished recent­ly in the Jour­nal of Atten­tion Dis­or­ders, Long-term out­comes of ADHD: Aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment and aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance, rep­re­sents the most com­pre­hen­sive effort to date to iden­ti­fy and syn­the­size research relat­ed to this impor­tant question.

The Study:

The authors began by iden­ti­fy­ing all stud­ies pub­lished between 1980 and 2012 that report­ed long-term aca­d­e­m­ic out­comes for youth with ADHD; this was defined as at least 2 years beyond an ini­tial base­line assess­ment. All stud­ies includ­ed a com­par­i­son group — either a nor­ma­tive com­par­i­son sam­ple or youth with ADHD who were not treat­ed — or a com­par­i­son mea­sure, e.g., a pre-treat­ment base­line mea­sure of aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment to which sub­se­quent achieve­ment could be com­pared. [Read more…] about Does ADHD treat­ment enable long-term aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess? (Yes, espe­cial­ly when phar­ma­co­log­i­cal and non-phar­ma treat­ments are combined)

Study finds combined pharma + non-pharma treatment most beneficial to help youth with ADHD address long-term academic difficulties

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Aca­d­e­m­ic dif­fi­cul­ties are one of the most impor­tant adverse con­se­quences of ADHD, and they fre­quent­ly con­tribute to par­ents’ deci­sion to seek treat­ment for their child. Whether treat­ment con­sis­tent­ly yields a pos­i­tive impact on long-term aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess is thus an impor­tant issue; how­ev­er, the answer to this ques­tion has been some­what con­tro­ver­sial. [Read more…] about Study finds com­bined phar­ma + non-phar­ma treat­ment most ben­e­fi­cial to help youth with ADHD address long-term aca­d­e­m­ic difficulties

Brain training seen as promising non-pharmacological method to enhance attention in healthy young adults

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This brain train­ing app may help you stay focused, says new study (CNN):

“Our dig­i­tal lives make con­cen­tra­tion difficult…A group of Cam­bridge uni­ver­si­ty researchers believes to have devel­oped a “fun” solu­tion to this mod­ern prob­lem. By play­ing a “brain train­ing” game, called Decoder, play­ers can increase their con­cen­tra­tion. [Read more…] about Brain train­ing seen as promis­ing non-phar­ma­co­log­i­cal method to enhance atten­tion in healthy young adults

Akili raises an additional $11.9M; brings Amgen, Merck, Pfizer and Shire to the digital medicine table

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akili-game—–

Akili Adds Amgen Ven­tures and M Ven­tures* to Series B Financ­ing, Increas­ing Round to $42.4 Mil­lion (press release):

“Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs, Inc. (“Akili”), a dig­i­tal med­i­cine com­pa­ny devel­op­ing nov­el, non-phar­ma­co­log­i­cal ther­a­peu­tics and diag­nos­tics for cog­ni­tive dis­or­ders, today announced an $11.9 mil­lion expan­sion of its recent Series B financ­ing. [Read more…] about Akili rais­es an addi­tion­al $11.9M; brings Amgen, Mer­ck, Pfiz­er and Shire to the dig­i­tal med­i­cine table

Study: Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) beat usual care for chronic back pain

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behavioral healthStudy finds mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion offers relief for low-back pain (NIH release):

“Mind­ful­ness based stress reduc­tion (MBSR) and cog­ni­tive-behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT) may prove more effec­tive than usu­al treat­ment in alle­vi­at­ing chron­ic low-back pain, accord­ing to [Read more…] about Study: Mind­ful­ness-based Stress Reduc­tion (MBSR) and Cog­ni­tive Behav­ioral Ther­a­py (CBT) beat usu­al care for chron­ic back pain

To improve academic outcomes, children with ADHD need both medication and non-medication treatments

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children_school_attention.

Aca­d­e­m­ic prob­lems are extreme­ly com­mon in chil­dren with ADHD, and often the issue that leads to refer­ral for an ADHD evaluation.

Aca­d­e­m­ic out­comes can be mea­sured in 2 dif­fer­ent ways — aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment and aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance — and both are com­pro­mised in chil­dren with ADHD. Aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment refers to the infor­ma­tion and skills that chil­dren acquire and is typ­i­cal­ly mea­sured by stan­dard­ized tests. Aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance focus­es on direct mea­sures of suc­cess at school such as grades, grade reten­tion, high school grad­u­a­tion, and col­lege enrollment.

An impor­tant ques­tion then, for mil­lions of kids diag­nosed with ADHD and for their par­ents and edu­ca­tors, is whether long-term aca­d­e­m­ic func­tion­ing can improve with appro­pri­ate treat­ment. [Read more…] about To improve aca­d­e­m­ic out­comes, chil­dren with ADHD need both med­ica­tion and non-med­ica­tion treatments