ADHD Without Drugs

Posting Date: 09/01/2004

One survey of parents indicated that 80 percent would choose behavior therapy over drug therapy as an initial treatment if they had been aware of the benefits of behavior therapy, Pelham points out.

"Medication for ADHD children is not bad, it just needs to be used in moderation," Pelham says. "Used in low doses, in combination with behavioral treatment when needed, medication is a very useful intervention for many ADHD children."

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With behavioral therapy, children, parents and teachers learn techniques and skills to help improve children's behavior in daily life. The focus is on academic performance at school, relationships with parents, peers and siblings, failure to obey adult requests, and skill development in important areas.

"Behavior modification is the fabric of good parenting," Pelham explains. "Almost every parent uses rewards and consequence such as 'timeouts' when their children misbehave. And every teacher has a list of rules and a list of consequences for breaking the rules. Essentially behavior therapy involves parent and teacher consultation to tweaks those rules. It teaches parents and teachers how to better manage an ADHD child.

"How many parents of ADHD children would choose as a first-line of treatment putting a psychoactive drug into their child's brain as opposed to learning how to help their child by being a better parent?," he asks. "In my experience no parent chooses drugs if they know that they have a choice."

Pelham's award-winning Summer Treatment Program for ADHD Children held annually at UB since 1997 provides intensive behavioral therapy for children on medication and not. Two studies published in the current issue of Behavior Therapy document the effectiveness of this program. The summer program includes recreational and classroom components and focuses on teaching peer skills, sports and academic skills in a summer-camp context. According to Pelham, families like the program because children not only get better, but they also like the treatment. "For the first time, these kids are in a camp where they succeed, and they love it!" he says. Variations of the UB summer program are offered at many other sites around the country, including in New York City, Cleveland and Birmingham, as well as in numerous communities in western Pennsylvania.