What is the best treatment for students with ADHD and Behavioral disorders… is medicine the best answer?
The authors of this article reviewed several large-scale studies conducted with students with EBD disorders. They found six total prevalent studies that focused on the effect of medication, cognitive-behavioral remediation (increased teaching time), no therapy, and combined therapy to help students reach responder status (a point where students are characterized as normal in testing and no longer diagnosed with their behavior). The first three studies discussed focused on students with ADHD and the next three focused on students with depression and anxiety disorders.
The results showed that combination therapy is the best at raising the students to a responder status in almost all the different studies. For ADHD medicinal treatment was found to have a great effect on the responder status of children enough so that the researches stated “for the most part, one comes away from these studies with respect for the primacy of medication in treatment of ADHD”. Solely the use of medication on children with depression and anxiety also had positive results, but it was not as great as for ADHD.
The conclusion of the research again explains the positive results of drug therapy for ADHD but does not ignore that negatives can be associated with it. Since drug therapy has positive results it is very important that people are educated to the proper use of medicine, and that the use of behavior and cognitive interventions also should be used because of their efficacy and the lack of medicinal access for all people. Some children do not show a positive effect to medicine so teacher and administrators should remember other modifications and push for other interventions. A surprising fact is that from “psychopharmacoedpidemiologic studies…suggests that undertreatment rather than overtreatment with psychotropic medications is the norm contrary to popular belief”. It is ever apparent that proper diagnosis and treatment for children will lead to the greatest results overall.
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Reference
Steven R Forness, Stephanny F N Freeman, Tanya Paparella. (2006). Recent Randomized Clinical Trials Comparing Behavioral Interventions and Psychopharmacologic Treatments for Students With EBD. Behavioral Disorders, 31(3), 284-296. Retrieved July 23, 2007, from ProQuest Education Journals database. (Document ID: 1081898061).