Effects of Amphetamine Therapy and Prescriptive Tutoring on the Behavior and Achievement of Lower Class Hyperactive Children

Abstract

The present study had two primary objectives:(1) to evaluate the relatively long-term (4-6 months) effects of dextroamphetamine on the behavior, achievement, and perceptual<ognitive functioning of hyperkinetic children; (2) to compare the effects of dextroamphetamine and prescriptive perceptual<ognitive tutoring. Sixty-eight children matched for intelligence and degree of hyperactivity were assigned to the following groups: placebo/no tutoring; placebo/tutoring; dextroamphetamine I no tutoring; and dextroamphetamine/tutoring. Doubleblind procedures were used in the administration of medication. Results indicate that dextroamphetamine contributed to a reduction of hyperkinetic behavioral symptoms and to improvement in performance on various measures of perceptual motor and cognitive development. Twice-a-week tutoring for an average of 20 weeks resulted in gains on some WISC subtests but was clearly not as effective as medication. Neither experimental condition significantly influenced academic achievement as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test. Implications for the management and instruction of hyperkinetic children are discussed. Hyperactive children have been found to differ significantly in several respects from matched controls. Douglas, Werry, and Weiss (1965)found hyperactive children deficient in visual motor skills, perceptual speed and accuracy, and motor ability. They were also less able to deal with information in a dichotic listening situation. According to a recent investigation by Weiss et al. (1968), hyperactive children showed significantly more signs of neurological dysfunction and exhibited less sensorimotor coordination than matched controls. Amphetamine therapy has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing the behavioral manifestations of hyperkinesis in children (Bradley, 1937; Bradley and Bowen, 1941;Bradley, 1950; Levy, 1959; Eisenberg et al., 1963;Conners, Eisenberg, and Barcai, 1967). Amphetamines also have been found to have a beneficial effect on Porteus Maze performance, Frostig Perceptual Quotient, Auditory Synthesis, and number of errors on a paired associates learning task (Conners et al., 1969).Another approach to the remediation of children with specific learning disabilities is training in the specific area of perceptual or cognitive dysfunction (Frostig et al.

Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Overview of the Evidence

“…42,43 Fourteen studies involved comparisons of either behavior or cognitive therapy along with combined nonpharmacologic intervention and stimulant medication. 7,8,[37][38][39][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] None of these studies, with the exception of that by Carlson et al, 47 provided evidence to suggest that nonpharmacologic intervention alone performed as well as the nonpharmacologic intervention plus stimulant medication.…”

Pharmacological Treatment of Attention-Deficit/HyperactivityDisorder

“…Across the 11 well-controlled trials that Schachar and Tannock (1993) identified, the finding that prolonged treatment with stimulants improves core behavioral symptoms was generally consistent, although few subjects progressed sufficiently to be considered normalized (e.g., Conrad, Dworkin, Shai, & Tobiessen, 1971). Benefits were noted with both low-dose (Brown, Wynne, & Medenis, 1985) and highdose (Gittelman-Klein et at., 1976) therapy, although a significant impact on aggression was found only at a twice-daily dose of 0.7 mg/kg (not at 0.3 mg/kg or 0.5 mg/kg; .…”

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Critical Appraisal of Extended Treatment Studies

“…This ar ti cle sys tem ati cally ap praises the meth ods and re sults of pub lished stud ies in which ADHD treat ment per sisted for more than 12 weeks (Ta ble 1,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Al though ADHD treatment typi cally con tin ues for many years (36), we iden ti fied those stud ies in which treat ment per sisted for a mini mum of 12 weeks un der ran dom ized con di tions.…”

“…Of the 429 com para tive stud ies, 293 were RCTs, and 136 were non-RCTs. Of these, we iden ti fied 14 RCTs that met cri te ria for long-term treatment stud ies (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35). Stud ies us ing the same sub jects were com bined and con sid ered as a sin gle data set (45).…”