Non-Drug ADHD Treatments Don't Pan Out in Study

[Anonymous]

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Many parents pursue costly and time-consuming treatments to help their children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Now, a new study finds little evidence that non-drug interventions reduce key symptoms of ADHD.

A multinational team of experts identified no positive effects from psychological treatments including mind exercises (cognitive training), neurofeedback and behavioral training (positive reinforcement). And the researchers discovered only small benefits associated with dietary treatments: supplementation with omega-3 and omega-6 free fatty acids, and elimination of artificial food coloring.

http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/news/20130130/non-drug-adhd-treatments-dont-pan-out-in-study

[Anonymous]

I believe it. We spent thousands of dollars and countless hours pursuing non-drug treatment and nothing helped. My poor child suffered the social stigma, loss of sef esteem and frustration that comes with ADHD. The best thing we ever did for him was get him the proper medicinal help.

[Anonymous]

I am def pursuing medication for my adhd "borderline" aspergers 4 yr old son (don't ask me what that means, i don't know. thats just how they describe my son)

BUT i have been giving him about 200mg of dha and it made a HUGE difference in his speech. Not in his adhd behaviors, but def his speech.

i know that there have been double blind studies showing that sugar has no effect on adhd. well someone forgot to give the memo to my son, cause give him one mcD ice cream and he is like daffy duck! He can sugar, but really large amounts does make him more hyperactive.

I think these studies are probabilities, but they are not studies done soley for my son, and it could be that my son is the exception, so i do my own experimentation LOL

[Anonymous]

Drugs aren't the only way, though. Kids do really well with behavior training. Drugs aren't effective long term. They just give you an 18-24 month window to get things under control.

[Anonymous]

I completely agree with the OP post. We've tried "talking" therapies for more than a decade. Behavioral doctors. Nutritionists. Everything. Nothing worked. The only thing that has worked for us is:

a) turn off all screen in house. Keep house quiet
b) limit games and screens to weekends after homework is done
c) stay consistent with meds overseen by a psychiatrist
d) terminate all psychologists, group therapy, any other unnecessary trips to specialists
e) Get an IEP for public school and/or switch schools to one that understands kids with ADHD and helps them instead of punishing them.
f) insist on reduction of homework in IEP.

[Anonymous]

I could not agree more with the previous poster. We too spent a fortune on all kinds of natural approaches and nothing has worked as well as medication. Natural supplements such as Omegas, etc help a bit in combination with all the points mentioned above. Meds alone are not the solution, but a huge part of it.

[Anonymous]

OP, could you dig a little deeper?

Read the original article:
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/Article.aspx?ArticleID=1566975

This is a meta-analysis, which is basically a review of past studies not an original RCT.

The sample size--a whomping 54, "Fifty-four of the 2,904 nonduplicate screened records were included in the analyses..."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, could you dig a little deeper?

Read the original article:
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/Article.aspx?ArticleID=1566975

This is a meta-analysis, which is basically a review of past studies not an original RCT.

The sample size--a whomping 54, "Fifty-four of the 2,904 nonduplicate screened records were included in the analyses..."

Thanks for the link. It always cracks me up when the summary on WebMD is so different from what an actual study states. Here is what the actual abstract says:

"When the outcome measure was based on ADHD assessments by raters closest to the therapeutic setting, all dietary (standardized mean differences=0.21–0.48) and psychological (standardized mean differences=0.40–0.64) treatments produced statistically significant effects. However, when the best probably blinded assessment was employed, effects remained significant for free fatty acid supplementation (standardized mean difference=0.16) and artificial food color exclusion (standardized mean difference=0.42) but were substantially attenuated to nonsignificant levels for other treatments."

[Anonymous]

I think these studies are probabilities, but they are not studies done soley for my son, and it could be that my son is the exception, so i do my own experimentation LOL

I don't understand -- why are you laughing out loud? What is funny about this? Or is it that you're just in the habit of LOLing anything and everything now after a decade+ online, whether it's funny or not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drugs aren't the only way, though. Kids do really well with behavior training. Drugs aren't effective long term. They just give you an 18-24 month window to get things under control.

Well thats BS. My DS has been on meds for years and they are extremely effective. I know this because I know what happens when he doesn't take them. If you are paying attention to these posts you'll see that studies do not back up behavioral training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think these studies are probabilities, but they are not studies done soley for my son, and it could be that my son is the exception, so i do my own experimentation LOL

I don't understand -- why are you laughing out loud? What is funny about this? Or is it that you're just in the habit of LOLing anything and everything now after a decade+ online, whether it's funny or not

yeowww! snip snap LOL
yes i am in the habit

[Anonymous]

My son was on Concerta for 4 years. I am not against meds at all.
However, HE wanted to try neurofeedback. He hated being on meds.

He did 60 sessions and he has been off meds since June and is doing very well.
It wasn't cheap but there are other non med treatments.
This was a life changer for us.

Even on meds, a high dose of meds, he still got sent to the office at school.
This last year, NOT once. No he is not perfect and still makes some careless mistakes, he is still forgetful.
We are THRILLED with the NFB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drugs aren't the only way, though. Kids do really well with behavior training. Drugs aren't effective long term. They just give you an 18-24 month window to get things under control.

Well thats BS. My DS has been on meds for years and they are extremely effective. I know this because I know what happens when he doesn't take them. If you are paying attention to these posts you'll see that studies do not back up behavioral training.

It is absolutely effective over the short term. In the short term, it is more effective than behavior therapy alone. We've known that since about 1999. however, it is not effective over the long term for most people. For most people, the effectiveness of medication for managing symptoms fades at about three years out. All treatment groups show improvement after about 14 months.

http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/adhd-drugs-no-long-term-benefits.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drugs aren't the only way, though. Kids do really well with behavior training. Drugs aren't effective long term. They just give you an 18-24 month window to get things under control.

Well thats BS. My DS has been on meds for years and they are extremely effective. I know this because I know what happens when he doesn't take them. If you are paying attention to these posts you'll see that studies do not back up behavioral training.

It is absolutely effective over the short term. In the short term, it is more effective than behavior therapy alone. We've known that since about 1999. however, it is not effective over the long term for most people. For most people, the effectiveness of medication for managing symptoms fades at about three years out. All treatment groups show improvement after about 14 months.

http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/adhd-drugs-no-long-term-benefits.html

Did you read the link? It says that because a number of kids stop taking the meds by 8 years it must mean they stopped working. Thats a huge leap of faith. There are plenty of other explanations. First of all, it is well known that some kids grow out of ADHD. That doesn't mean they didn't have it in the first place, or that they didn't benefit from meds. Its just that for some kids ADHD is solely a childhood disorder. And there may be people who decide they'd rather live with the disorder than the meds. That doesn't mean the meds stopped working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son was on Concerta for 4 years. I am not against meds at all.
However, HE wanted to try neurofeedback. He hated being on meds.

He did 60 sessions and he has been off meds since June and is doing very well.
It wasn't cheap but there are other non med treatments.
This was a life changer for us.

Even on meds, a high dose of meds, he still got sent to the office at school.
This last year, NOT once. No he is not perfect and still makes some careless mistakes, he is still forgetful.
We are THRILLED with the NFB.

PP, we are interested in neurofeedback. Where do you go if you don't mind sharing?