Is Behavioral Intervention Effective in Treating ADHD in Children and Young Adults?

Is Behavioral Intervention Effective in Treating ADHD in Children and Young Adults?

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of behavioral intervention in treatment of ADHD in children and young adults.

Method: Eight peer-reviewed articles were critically analyzed to obtain information on the effectiveness of behavioral intervention in treatment of ADHD in children and young adults.

Results: The findings from all peer-reviewed articles indicated that behavioral intervention was the best intervention technique for treating ADHD in children and young adults. This was most evident from the school-based behavioral intervention where the children were able to follow the outlined rules.

Conclusion: Behavior intervention has been identified as the most effective treatment technique for ADHD in children and young adults.

 Introduction and Background

This paper seeks to study on effectiveness of behavioral intervention in treating Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is a mental disorder that affects children and young adults. It affects the nervous system that is most commonly facilitated by genetic or biological disorders. ADHD causes children and teens to be hypersensitive, fail to control their impulses, cause anxiety and sleep disorders. These symptoms become pronounced when the child’s environment changes such as when they begin attending school. The diagnosis of ADHD is usually conducted when the children are between the ages of 6-12 years. Although the symptoms of ADHD usually improve as the children grow, they still experience problems into their adult life. Behavioral intervention is the most common form of treatment that is used in managing ADHD. ADHD has no cure thus can only be managed (Barkley, 2014).

A lot of documented research indicate that behavioral techniques is the most effective intervention method for treating ADHD in children and young adults. Behavioral intervention focuses on developing positive behaviors in children and young adults with ADHD and eradicates undesirable behaviors. Behavioral interventions include behavior therapy for children, training of parents on how to manage the problem behaviors of their children ADHD and contingency management. The behavioral intervention have made significant contributions towards reducing hyperactivity, enhanced their ability to control impulse behavior and improvement in their ability to pay attention (Henin, A., Micco, J. A., Schoeller et al., 2016). Additionally, it has contributed to significant improvement of sleep and reduce anxiety. Studies indicate that behavioral interventions enable children to learn and develop social skills thereby improving their relationships with others. It also minimizes stress and frustration thereby improving their performance at school (Daley, Van der Oord & Ferrin et al., (2014).

Methods

The articles used in the study were retrieved from the Medline Plus. Medline Plus is an Online Library Database used as a search engine for obtaining relevant articles on health information. The subject (Health) was selected. The portal titled “All Nursing + Health Sciences Databases & Resources was selected. The terms used for the search include behavioral intervention and ADHD. Numerous articles were retrieved and scrutinized thoroughly and narrowed down to selection of eight articles that were relevant to the topic of discussion. The articvles were selected from different conuitries including USA, Spain, Canada, Iran and Germany and Middle East.

Results

Studies by Graziano and Garcia (2016) indicated that behavioral modification has contributed to development of desirable behavior in children. The study collected information from 114 papers that were used to conduct a meta-analysis. The groups studied included 83 children and the pre-post studies included 70 children. Results findings indicated that 2.64% of the group studies and 3.78% of the single studies displayed high level of compliance and decreased the levels of non compliance. This demonstrated that behavioral treatment increases development of desired behaviors in curbing undesirable behavior. The results demonstrated that behavioral treatment was very effective in treating ADHD in children. Behavioral modification involved manipulation of children behavior through contingency management and clinical behavioral therapy.  A similar study by Page, Pelham III & Fabiano (2016) indicated that behavioral interventions were the most effective intervention methods in treating ADHD.

Studies by Kratochwill and Shernoff (2004) conducted research from different socio-economic backgrounds including USA, Spain, Canada, Iran and Germany. The study was focused on determining the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment of impulsiveness of conduct in children, inattentiveness, hyperactivities and the general behavior problems caused by ADHD. The cognitive-behavioral treatment also included solving academic and interpersonal problems. All studies from the different socio-economic background indicated that cognitive-behavioral treatments showed positive impacts on the behavior problems caused by ADHD. Studies reveal that the cognitive-behavioral intervention had greater impact on the general behavior problems of ADHD. Additionally, the cognitive-behavioral intervention had large positive impacts on improving attentiveness, reducing hyperactivity and impulsiveness. This indicates that the use of behavioral intervention is effective in treating and managing ADHD behavior in children and young adults.

The study findings by Pelham, Fabiano & Waxmonsky et al., (2016) indicated that behavioral interventions improved behavior of children and adults. Their study involved testing the effectiveness of various approaches of behavioral innervations in modifying the problem behavioral characteristics of the children with ADHD. These approaches included training of parents, school-based interventions and child behavioral therapy treatment. Results indicated that all approaches generated positive outcome. Parents training enabled parents to effectively manage their children problem behaviors. The ADHD children showed great improvement in their ability to develop positive behaviors. The child behavioral therapy program demonstrated its effectiveness by the ability of children with ADHD to follow rules that were clearly outlined. They were able to meet most of the behavioral expectations. Similar studies by El-Sayed, El-Sheikh, & Khalil (2016) revealed that parents behavioral therapy was effective in helping children develop desirable behaviors. Results revealed that behavioral therapy for parents’ enables parents to effective manage the behaviors of their children thus resulting in development of positive outcome.

Additionally, results indicated that the child behavioral therapy program was effective in facilitating development of social skills displayed by these children. The school-based interventions demonstrated its effectiveness in managing the behavior of children with ADHD in the classroom. The children displayed increased level of attentiveness. Also, they showed reduced involvement in various activities in classroom and stayed still. Results also revealed that the improved classroom behavioral characteristics were also reflected by children when at home. Therefore, this indicates that behavioral intervention is very effective in treating and managing ADHD and improving behavioral characteristics (Pelham, Fabiano & Waxmonsky et al., 2016).

Conclusion

It is evident that behavioral intervention is the most effective treatment method for ADHD in children and young adults. Behavioral intervention is associated with modification of behavior in children and adults through the various behavioral therapy interventions. The findings have revealed that behavior intervention contributes to development of desirable behavior and eradicates undesirable behavior. It facilitates improvement in their ability to pay attention, reduces hyperactivity and enhances their ability to control impulse behavior. There, behavior treatments are highly effective intervention method in treating and managing ADHD in children and young adults.

References

Barkley, R. A. (Ed.). (2014). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment. Guilford Publications.

Daley, D., Van der Oord, S., Ferrin, M., Danckaerts, M., Doepfner, M., Cortese, S., … & European ADHD Guidelines Group. (2014). Behavioral interventions in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials across multiple outcome domains. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 53(8), 835-847.

El-Sayed, N. N., El-Sheikh, M. M., Khalil, S. A., El-Ghamry, R. H., & Badawy, H. A. A. (2016). Impact of implementing a parental training program in the treatment of a sample of ADHD children. Middle East Current Psychiatry, 23(2), 63-71.

Graziano, P. A., & Garcia, A. (2016). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and children’s emotion dysregulation: A meta-analysis. Clinical psychology review, 46, 106-123.

Henin, A., Micco, J. A., Schoeller, M., Boudreaux, A., & Hirshfeld-Becker, D. (2016). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Children and Adolescents. In The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (pp. 259-275). Springer New York

Kratochwill, T. R., & Steele Shernoff, E. (2004). Evidence-Based Practice: Promoting Evidence-Based Interventions in School Psychology.School PsychologyReview, 33,34-48.

Page, T. F., Pelham III, W. E., Fabiano, G. A., Greiner, A. R., Gnagy, E. M., Hart, K. C., … & Pelham Jr, W. E. (2016). Comparative cost analysis of sequential, adaptive, behavioral, pharmacological, and combined treatments for childhood ADHD. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 1-12.

Pelham, W. E., Fabiano, G. A., Waxmonsky, J. G., Greiner, A. R., Gnagy, E. M., Pelham, W. E., … & Karch, K. (2016). Treatment sequencing for childhood ADHD: A multiple-randomization study of adaptive medication and behavioral interventions. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 1-20.

Table 1: Summary of Peer-Reviewed Articles