gabriela
06-22-04, 05:01 AM
usa today june 15, 2004
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Small classes and individual attention may help ADHD kids, but research shows that medication helps more, says Russell Barkley, a psychiatry professor at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
A National Institute of Mental Health study of more than 600 ADHD-diagnosed children — the largest ADHD study ever — showed that those getting medication were the only ones with lasting benefits, even though others got "the most intensive psychological treatment that has ever been done," Barkley says.
He says the methods of Albany, N.Y., teacher Chris Mercogliano ignore "voluminous scientific literature" as well as brain imaging, which shows that ADHD produces neurological differences that can't be overcome through changes in kids' environments.
Family and school environments play a role, he says — another study of ADHD-diagnosed kindergartners found that changing those factors "resulted in a tremendous improvement." But three months after students left that intensive program, all gains were lost.
"There was no carryover outside the school," Barkley says.
Environmental or psychological treatments are only useful the day you use them, he says. "The day you stop treatment is the day you go back to being ADHD."
The disorder, he says, is much like diabetes — manageable but chronic. "I cannot get rid of it, and if I stop my intervention, you're going to go back to being like you were before."
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Small classes and individual attention may help ADHD kids, but research shows that medication helps more, says Russell Barkley, a psychiatry professor at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
A National Institute of Mental Health study of more than 600 ADHD-diagnosed children — the largest ADHD study ever — showed that those getting medication were the only ones with lasting benefits, even though others got "the most intensive psychological treatment that has ever been done," Barkley says.
He says the methods of Albany, N.Y., teacher Chris Mercogliano ignore "voluminous scientific literature" as well as brain imaging, which shows that ADHD produces neurological differences that can't be overcome through changes in kids' environments.
Family and school environments play a role, he says — another study of ADHD-diagnosed kindergartners found that changing those factors "resulted in a tremendous improvement." But three months after students left that intensive program, all gains were lost.
"There was no carryover outside the school," Barkley says.
Environmental or psychological treatments are only useful the day you use them, he says. "The day you stop treatment is the day you go back to being ADHD."
The disorder, he says, is much like diabetes — manageable but chronic. "I cannot get rid of it, and if I stop my intervention, you're going to go back to being like you were before."