Parents' acceptability of alternative treatments for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Ninety-six parents evaluated alternative treatments for a child diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), according to both DSM-III-R and DSM-IV criteria. All subjects evaluated three psychosocial treatments for ADHD children (i.e., self-management therapy, parent training, parent-child interaction training) in addition to a no-treatment option. Half of the subjects also evaluated the acceptability of psychosocial interventions combined with psychostimulant medication. Results indicated that psychosocial treatments combined with psychostimulant medication were rated significantly lower in acceptability than psychosocial treatments alone. Child self-management therapy, parent training, and parent-child interaction training were generally rated as equivalent interventions although parent-child interaction training revealed the highest acceptability scores. All therapies were preferred to the notreatment option.Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterized by deficits in attention and/or extreme overactivity, and is also associated with secondary effects such as low self-esteem, poor school achievement, and problems developing social relationships

Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for College Students With ADHD: A Case Series Report

“…In such cases, this treatment may serve as a "jump-start" by rapidly helping to improve adaptation and increasing motivation for change, which might be facilitated by longer-term psychotherapy or medical intervention. Alternately, this treatment might be useful for college students recently diagnosed with ADHD, in that offering a nonpharmacological option as a primary or secondary intervention has been shown to increase perceptions of treatment acceptability, which could bolster motivation to begin and follow-through (Krain, Kendall, & Power, 2005;Wilson & Jennings, 1996).…”

Parental Social Cognitions: Considerations in the Acceptability of and Engagement in Behavioral Parent Training

“…It includes judgments of the appropriateness of the treatment for the problem, whether the treatment is just, sensible, and nonintrusive, and whether it concurs with popular notions of what constitutes treatment. A sizable literature supports the general acceptability of BPT, particularly as compared to alternatives such as pharmacological interventions (e.g., Calvert and Johnston 1990;Carter 2007;Johnston et al 2008;Reimers et al 1992;Wilson and Jennings 1996). However, there remains much to be known about what factors may contribute to the acceptability of BPT, including how treatment is presented to parents, and the match between parental expectations and desires for therapy and what is offered in BPT.…”

“…Although parents may see BPT as acceptable (e.g., Boothe and Borrego 2004;Johnston et al 2008;Wilson and Jennings 1996), they still may fail to actively engage in the treatment (Nock and Ferriter 2005) or may choose less acceptable alternatives (e.g., stimulant medications; Johnston et al 2008). This failure of pre-treatment cognitions and intentions to predict actual behavior is consistent with findings across a range of health behaviors indicating that intentions engender only a small-to-medium effect on behavior (Webb and Sheeran 2006), and that other factors may operate to moderate the relation of intention to action, such as perceptions of behavioral control (Sheeran et al 2003), and habit (Ouellette and Wood 1998).…”

Effects of hippotherapy on brain function, BDNF level, and physical fitness in children with ADHD

“…However, these drugs temporarily improve ADHD symptoms and do not perfectly result in eradicating the condition. Therefore, these drugs are not an appropriate treatment for curing the fundamental causes of ADHD [10,11]. To make up for the weak points of ADHD treatment, various intervention studies have been conducted to overcome the frontal lobe malfunction; these studies have explored the effect of [12][13][14].…”