Family Centered Care Effective in ADHD Therapy

Family-centered compassionate care seems to be more effective then standard care for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Dr. Michael Silverstein, Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues randomized 156 children to receive either standard care or enhanced collaborative care. The children in this study, ranging from age 6-12, had not been diagnosed with ADHD at the start of the study but 40% of them were found to have ADHD symptoms and were recommended for testing by their primary care doctors. The children had ADHD were followed up for a year.

Enhanced collaborative care involved several days of training by care managers to teach parents healthy parenting skills and interact with families in an open-minded, non-judgmental, empathetic way. After one year, the children as a whole showed improvements in hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention, and social skills.

Difficulty adhering to the therapy for economic, family, or other reasons, a mother's mental health problems and other conditions the child has, such as oppositional defiance disorder, depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, or even post-traumatic stress disorder can interfere with a child's ability to receive successful treatment. The enhanced collaborative care approach tried to help with those factors, Silverstein said.

Source: Medindia