Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
973741 tn?1342342773

Do you think Therapy helps or is important to treat ADD/ADHD?

Medication is amazing for treating add and adhd.  But what about therapy?  Do you think it helps?  Lots of kids with add and adhd have social skills issues, organizational skills issues, self esteem issues.  What could therapy do to help them?  It's often an additional expense for parents or to the patient if they are an adult.  Is it worth it?
3 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
189897 tn?1441126518
COMMUNITY LEADER
Great research report!

  Does ADHD treatment help long-term academic performance?

ADHD has been linked to reduced academic achievement and educational attainment. In fact, academic difficulties are one of the most important adverse consequences of ADHD.
Academic problems 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 [Arnold et al., (2020). Long-term outcomes of ADHD: Academic achievement and academic performance, 24, 73-85] represents the most comprehensive effort to date to identify and synthesize research related to this important question.
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.
Academic outcomes were categorized as achievement outcomes or performance outcomes. Achievement outcomes refer to results of standardized achievement tests and reflect knowledge that children have acquired.
Performance measures address actual performance at school setting, e.g., school grades, years of schooling completed, graduating from high school. etc. Thus, performance outcomes are especially important because they reflect what students actually accomplish in school
While these different types of academic outcomes are correlated, they are not identicall as one could score well on achievement tests and yet earn poor grades for a variety of different reasons.
Two important research questions were addressed:
How does untreated ADHD affect academic outcomes over the long-term?
How does treatment and specific types of treatment impact long-term academic outcomes?
The authors identified 176 studies between 1980 and 2012 that reported long-term academic outcomes associated with treated and untreated ADHD. These studies employed different designs and comparison groups, as well as a variety of different academic measures.
It should be noted that few studies were randomized-controlled trials, which is generally considered to be the gold standard for evaluating treatment effects. This is inevitable when examining long-term outcomes, however, as it is almost impossible to sustain random assignment to treatment or a control condition over an extended time period.

Summarizing the findings - To examine the impact of untreated ADHD on academic outcomes,, the authors considered studies comparing outcomes for youth with untreated ADHD to those without ADHD. Outcomes were considered 'poorer' when results for youth with untreated ADHD were significantly worse; When no significant difference was found, outcomes were considered 'similar'.
In studies examining the impact of ADHD treatment, outcomes were considered to 'improve' when youth treated for ADHD had significantly better outcomes than untreated youth with ADHD. In studies where outcomes were compared to a pre-treatment baseline, improvement was reflected by significant gains relative to the baseline.

Results
Untreated ADHD outcomes - Across all studies and achievement test outcomes, youth with untreated ADHD had significantly lower scores than youth without ADHD for 75% of the outcomes. They were also lower for 79% of the academic performance outcomes.
Does ADHD treatment help? - For achievement test scores, treatment was associated with significant improvement with treatment for roughly 80% of the outcomes examined; this compares to only 25% improvement for untreated ADHD.
For academic performance outcomes, e.g., grades, high school graduation, significant improvement was found under 50% of the time. While lower, the corresponding figure for untreated ADHD was only 21%
What is the impact of different types of treatment? - For each type of treatment, i.e., pharmacological, non-pharmacological, or combined, improvement was more likely for achievement outcomes than for performance outcomes.
Comparing outcomes between treatment types was difficult as few studies provided any direct comparison of treatments. However, youth who received a combination of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment were more likely to show improvement for both achievement and performance outcomes than youth who received either treatment alone.

Summary and implications - Results of this research synthesis underscore that untreated ADHD is highly likely to compromise children's long-term academic achievement and academic performance. While this has been known for some time, integrating relevant studies on this issue over the past 30 years highlights the robustness of this conclusion.
More encouraging was the finding that treatment - both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic - is often associated with significant gains in long-term academic outcomes. This was more likely for achievement test outcomes than for performance outcomes, however. In other words, while children who receive treatment are very likely to 'learn' more, this will be less consistently reflected in how they actually perform at school.
It is also noteworthy that combined treatment - also referred to as multimodal treatment - was more likely to result in positive academic outcomes than treatments used in isolation. This suggests that most youth with ADHD will be better served by treatments that integrate medical and non-medical approaches.
Their are limitations to this study that the authors highlight.
Efforts to integrate dozens of differing studies is challenging and required that only general conclusions be offered, e.g., treatment benefits long-term outcomes.
Efforts to quantify how much treatment helps, and whether this depends on the length and/or quality of treatment received, could not be addressed. Even making general comparisons between broad treatment approaches, i.e., pharmacologic vs. non-pharmacologic, was limited by the relatively small number of studies where this comparison was made.
The authors were also unable to disentangle the effects of ADHD on long-term academic outcomes from the other conditions that often accompany ADHD, i.e., comorbidities such as other behavioral and/or emotional disorders.
These concerns not withstanding, this comprehensive research review provides a firm basis for concluding that treatment improves academic outcomes for youth with ADHD, particularly for academic achievement measures. Making significant improvement in long-term performance academic performance, i.e., 'real world' academic outcomes that are especially important., however, is more difficult.

=============================

Information presented in Attention Research Update is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Although newsletter sponsors offer products and services that I believe will be of interest to subscribers, sponsorship of Attention Research Update does not constitute a specific endorsement or guarantee of any company's product or services.



David Rabiner, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Duke University


Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
As a parent with a child with ADHD, I will say that it is essential to combine therapy with medication. In my opinion, the medication is just a band-aid- the symptoms are still there, they are just suppressed or better able to cope with them while the medication is in their system. But as soon as the medication has worn off, the symptoms appear again. I believe that the medication can help them be focused and calm so that they can learn and absorb the skills they need. My son takes a stimulant medication daily, but he was also in CBT play therapy, and now we are working with an occupational therapist. I live in Canada, and the thing that sucks is that anything mental health related you have to pay for out of pocket and it is not cheap! That has been the real downside to this, is the amount of time and money we have spent taking him to therapy, but I hope that in the long run, we can all look back and say 'ya, that was worth every penny'
Helpful - 0
189897 tn?1441126518
COMMUNITY LEADER
All the research I have seen says that a combination of medicine and therapy is the most effective treatment.  Many times, if the therapy is well done, the dosage of the meds can be reduced.  I do think that finding the right therapist can be tricky.   But its worth the time and money.  All to often the parents look upon the pill as a magic pill that will handle all the problems.  With the end result being a child growing up without the support to understand what ad/hd is, how it does affect them and those around them.  And of course, the strategies to deal with ad/hd are very important and many times will be used life long.
Helpful - 0
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the ADHD Community

Top Children's Development Answerers
189897 tn?1441126518
San Pedro, CA
Learn About Top Answerers
Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Fearing autism, many parents aren't vaccinating their kids. Can doctors reverse this dangerous trend?
Yummy eats that will keep your child healthy and happy
What to expect in your growing baby
Is the PS3 the new Prozac … or causing ADHD in your kid?
Autism expert Dr. Richard Graff weighs in on the vaccine-autism media scandal.
Could your home be a haven for toxins that can cause ADHD?