I spent most of my Sunday afternoon reviewing and editing reports of child neuropsychological evaluations. Most of them were for children who came to our clinic for a comprehensive ADHD diagnostic evaluation. At the end of these reports we always include a large number of individualized recommendations for home and school accommodations and interventions. Within this list, we often, if not always, encourage parents to consult with their pediatrician or child psychiatrist regarding the appropriateness of medication for the treatment for their child’s ADHD. But such recommendation is only one of more than a dozen. In our approach to treatment, medication is one small component of a multi-pronged strategy. Why? Because medication alone is unlikely to be enough to help the child successfully navigate the multiple obstacles imposed by his/her condition. So I was not surprised when I read the results of one of the largest studies of community-based medication interventions for elementary school children with ADHD. The result? Medication alone works, but not as much as we’d like. Read More

A recent article in the Journal of child Psychology and Psychiatry examined the long term course of ADHD and co-morbid diagnoses among boys and girls as they transitioned from childhood into adolescence. The vast majority of research on ADHD has been done with boys, mostly due to the sex difference in the rates of ADHD. The few studies that have included girls have shown significant differences between boys and girls in a number of domains, including the physiological correlates of the condition, cognitive function, and co-morbidities. Yet, we know little of the longitudinal progression of ADHD in girls. Specifically, it is unknown whether the course of ADHD is similar in boys and girls or whether they have similar co-morbid conditions throughout childhood and adolescence. Read More