The Effects of Medication and Therapy Combined

The stimulant methylphenidate is currently used to treat ADHD. However, the treatment is used without cognitive therapy. Children with ADHD are either treated with the medication, cognitive therapy, or rarely, both. Both are effective in reducing the symptoms of ADHD, whereas the drug has found to be more effective short term. A past research study looked at children with ADHD and the effects of a medication only group in comparison to a combined treatment group. The study looked at fifty children between 8 and 12 years of age. In regards to the integration of cognitive therapy and methylphenidate, surprisingly, there is no effect short term. Due to the limited research on long term effects ADHD treatment by stimulants, Van der Oord, et al. (2012) were interested in looking at the long-term effects that the treatment plans could have. To do this, they followed up with the children from the previous study 4.5 to 7.5 years later. The researchers found significant differences compared to the post-test of their previous study. Those who used medication only were using more medication than those in the combined treatment group. Those who were in both treatments showed a significant decrease of ADHD symptoms years later. Both of these findings were not significant directly after the first study.

            Although there was differences at follow up compared to the effects directly following the study, there are several limitations to the follow up study.  First, the group of 50 children in the first study reduced to 29 individuals that could have possible caused the differences between the two groups. In addition, the researchers used a small sample size in general. It is hard to conclude that these long-term effects generalize to the whole population. The results of this study give guidance to those who have ADHD and how they should get treatment.

Abstract

Oord, S. S., Prins, P. M., Oosterlaan, J. J., & Emmelkamp, P. G. (2012). The adolescent outcome of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder treated with methylphenidate or methylphenidate combined with multimodal behaviour therapy: Results of a naturalistic follow-up study. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 19(3), 270-278.