Do Children with ADHD Need Medication?

Contact: David Peikin
Public Affairs Office
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MEDIA ADVISORY

DO CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) NEED MEDICATION TO CONTROL THEIR BEHAVIOR?

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

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.

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