Is Parent Training A Substitute for Medication in Children with ADHD?

WHAT: News Briefing: Do Children with ADHD Need Medication to Control Their Behavior?

WHEN: Monday August 17, 1998 at 9:00 AM

WHERE: The Palace Hotel, Napa Room, San Francisco, CA

While a vast majority of psychologists who treat children with ADHD believe that medication such as Ritalin is necessary to regulate their behavior, a handful of researchers and clinicians are challenging this widely held assumption. Psychologist David B. Stein, Ph.D., of Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia, has been successful in treating children with ADHD through the implementation of parent training techniques, which he claims eliminates the need for medication in treating ADHD. Psychologists George DuPaul, Ph.D., of Lehigh University, and Arthur D. Anastopoulos, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, maintain that Ritalin is often an integral component in the treatment of ADHD in children.

PARTICIPANTS:

David B. Stein, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Longwood College. He claims that children with ADHD "are normal kids who simply do not think or pay attention to what they are doing, and if parents learn to rigorously control the consequences of their children's behavior, these children make dramatic behavioral improvements, thus rendering drugs such as Ritalin unnecessary." His research demonstrates that marked behavioral improvement in ADHD children can occur after six weeks of parent training, and a one-year follow-up indicated that all children maintained improved behavior and had increased their ability to think for themselves. "The current popular approaches [which rely on medication] reinforce the child's beliefs that he or she has a disease and always will, that they are inferior, and that they must take medication to function," Dr. Stein asserts. "However, these children can be made to function independently and can maintain both behavioral improvements and enhanced self-esteem."

Arthur D. Anastopoulos, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro. He has spent 12 years specializing in the assessment and treatment of children with ADHD. He is also the principal investigator on a recently completed three-year NIMH-funded study examining comorbidity and ADHD parent training outcome. Dr. Anastopoulos states that "parent training works for some children and their families, but not all." Parent training, he asserts, has a place in dealing with the effects of ADHD at home, but there is no evidence that it has any effect on children's school behavior. "Most research findings suggest that medication is the most viable option to improve school behavior in children with ADHD," Dr. Anastopoulos states. He has authored or co-authored over 30 journal articles and book chapters on ADHD and is the lead author of an upcoming Plenum Press text Assessing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

George J. DuPaul, Ph.D., is a Professor and Coordinator of the School Psychology Program, Department of Education and Human Services at Lehigh University. He has extensive experience providing clinical services to children with ADHD and their families as well as consulting with a number of school districts regarding the management of students with ADHD. "If you look at studies of kids with ADHD as a group, most have shown that the combination of Ritalin and behavior therapy is an optimal approach to treating ADHD, much better than either treatment in isolation," Dr. DuPaul notes. "While behavior therapy in general, and parent training in particular, are valuable components in treating ADHD in children, the majority of kids with ADHD require Ritalin." Dr. DuPaul has authored or co-authored over 80 journal articles and book chapters on ADHD, and he published two books and two videos on the assessment and treatment of ADHD. He is an Associate Editor of School Psychology Review and is on the editorial boards of several journals.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 155,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 50 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 59 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.