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For People with ADHD & Those Who Love Them |
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Cogmed Working Memory Training Outline: Everything You Want To Know About ADHD
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Return to ADDvisor Volume 4 2002 Index Number 8 April 15, 2002 ========================================== FIVE CURRENT RESEARCH REVIEWS ========================================== ADHD is one of the most highly researched psychiatric disorders on the planet. We review scores of research articles every month to keep up-to-date about the most current information for this disorder.Summarized below are five current pieces of research that are most relevant to parents of children with ADHD.1. Which Treatments Are Most Effective for Parenting and Family Stress?Wells K.C. et. al., (2000). Parenting and family stress treatment outcomes in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): An empirical analysis in the MTA study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 543-553.ADHD in children and is frequently associated with negative, commanding, directive, and controlling parental behavior. In addition, there are often more reports of parental stress. This is especially so for ADHD children having coexisting oppositional defiant disorder. The authors in this study concluded that the reductions in negative parenting may be more important than improvements in positive parenting because of the greater association of negative parenting behavior with the risk for increasing coexisting disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder. This suggests that parents should reduce the number and intensity of negative parenting comments made to their children with ADHD.2. Is Grade Retention Helpful for Children's Schooling?Pagani, L., et. al., (2001). Effects of grade retention on academic performance and behavioral development. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 297-315.Parents and teachers often wonder if holding a child back a grade in school in response to poor academic performance is a wise decision. Since up to 25 percent or more of children with ADHD may be held back it is important to know if it is of benefit.A study at the University of Montreal examined this issue using 1830 children under the age of 13. Grade retention was observed to negatively affect children's developmental outcomes. The consequences were described as "dramatic" and "long-lasting" affecting children "across the board" in academic and behavioral adjustment. Retained children experienced increased anxiety and inattentiveness, regardless of sex, with the greatest negative impact resulting from retention in the early primary grades. These effects seem to magnify overtime suggesting that they were not just short term in nature. Boys retained in grade were also more likely to develop further disruptive behavior and show more impaired academic performance than girls, while girls were more likely to be affected in their academic performance. Though ADHD children were not specifically identified in this study these results provide a strong argument against the practice of retaining children with ADHD in grade for any reason. 3. Parent Training Programs Compared. Sonuga-Barke, E., et. al., (2001). Parent-based therapies for pre-school Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A randomized, controlled trial with a community sample. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40 (4), 402-408. This study compared two parent-training programs that involved a therapist providing education regarding ADHD and specific behavioral strategies to address associated problems to strategies involving parents counseling and support. The results indicate that 53 percent of the children in the group providing parent education evidenced clinically significant improvement, suggesting that parent training in specific behavioral strategies and education is an alternative or good accompaniment to psychostimulant medication for the treatment of ADHD. (Score one for the ADDvisor parent training programs!) 4. Which ADHD Child Becomes Physically Aggressive? Marks, D. J., et. al., (2000). Predictors of physical aggression in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. CNS Spectrums, 5, 52-57.Most children with ADHD are unlikely to develop physical aggressiveness, but a substantial minority may. The results of this study found that early parent and teacher ratings of verbal aggression were the best predictors of later physical aggression.Early ADHD and physical aggression were not predictive of later physical aggression once verbal aggression had been taken into account. Therefore, early signs of verbal aggression may predict a greater risk for later physical aggression in children with ADHD. 5. ADHD and Problems in Peer Relations: Predictions from Childhood to Adolescence. Bagwell, C.L., et.al., (2001). ADHD and problems in peer relations: Predictions from childhood to adolescence. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 1285-1299.These authors set out to statistically determine whether childhood ADHD and the persistence of the disorder are associated with later difficulty in adolescent peer relationships. Childhood ADHD predicted later impairment in the multiple domains of adolescent peer relations, including parents reports of close friendships and peer rejection and adolescents reports of their friends conventionality.The notion that children with ADHD outgrew the disorder is far from accurate. In this study, even those youths who no longer met full diagnostic criteria during the adolescent years demonstrated impairment in their peer relationships. CONTACT INFORMATION _______________________ Alan R. Graham, Ph.D. Bill Benninger, Ph.D. ADDvisor.com Voice: 1-866-ADDvisor Fax: 847-824-2386 Email: Alan@ADDvisor.com Bill@ADDvisor.com Web: www.ADDvisor.com (c) Copyright 2002 ADDvisor.com, Ltd. All rights reserved The above material may be retransmitted or distributed to whomever you wish as long as not a single word is changed, added or deleted, including the contact information. However, you may not copy it to a web site. Republication of "The ADDvisor" in paper media is encouraged and permitted by organizations and associations which serve parents of ADHD children at the national, state and/or local level as long as the issue is reprinted in its entirety without charge and includes the contact information. With advance permission, we are happy to edit an issue to fit your space requirements. Republication is also encouraged under other circumstances, however, the advance permission of ADDvisor.com, Ltd. must be obtained in the event that changes in the text are desired or republication is to be made by individuals or by organizations other than those mentioned above.
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