Treating children who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with drugs is not effective in the long-term, research has shown.
A study obtained by the BBC’s Panorama programme says drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta work no better than therapy after three years of treatment.
Click Here for the original BBC Story.
The findings by an influential US study also suggested long-term use of the drugs could stunt children’s growth. It said that the benefits of drugs had previously been exaggerated.
The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD has been monitoring the treatment of 600 children across the US since the 1990s. Most of the estimated 500,000 children in Britain with ADHD receive no treatment at all. But of those that do, most – about 55,000 last year – are prescribed stimulants like Ritalin and Concerta. The cost of these drugs to the NHS is about £28m.
In 1999, the American study concluded that after one year medication worked better than behavioural therapy for ADHD. This finding influenced medical practice on both sides of the Atlantic, and prescription rates in the UK have since tripled. But now after longer-term analysis, the report’s co-author, Professor William Pelham of the University of Buffalo, said: “I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study.
“We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes. That didn’t happen to be the case.
“There’s no indication that medication’s better than nothing in the long run.”
Prof Pelham said there were “no beneficial effects” of medication and the impact was seemingly negative instead.
“The children had a substantial decrease in their rate of growth so they weren’t growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and in terms of their weight,” he said.
The Panorama programme features disturbing footage of a 14-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent, who has been on ADHD medication for a decade. Craig Buxton’s family kept a video diary of his behaviour and captured on camera examples of just how explosive his behaviour can be. He has self-harmed, suffers night terrors and is aggressive – he recently assaulted three school teachers.
His mother Sharon said things had gone from bad to worse.
“He has broke down and cried when he gets into situations,” she said. “He says: ‘Why am I like this mum, I don’t want to feel like this, I don’t want to be like this, you know, help me’. “And all I can do is go back to the doctors and say: ‘Is there anything more you can do?’ “All they say is, well, we are doing what we can.”
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is currently revising the treatment guidelines for ADHD. Chair of the working group Dr Tim Kendall said they were devising a strategy which was likely to involve training for parents as well as “behavioural interventions”.
“The important thing is that we have an approach which doesn’t focus just on one type of treatment,” Dr Kendall said.
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Interview with Dr. David Velkoff
Interview with Dr. David Velkoff
Spanish News Feature
“David F. Velkoff, M.D., our Medical Director and co-founder, supervises all evaluation procedures and treatment programs. He is recognized as a physician pioneer in using biofeedback, qEEG brain mapping, neurofeedback, and neuromodulation in the treatment of ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and stress related illnesses including anxiety, depression, insomnia, and high blood pressure. Dr. David Velkoff earned his Master’s degree in Psychology from the California State University at Los Angeles in 1975, and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta in 1976. This was followed by Dr. Velkoff completing his internship in Obstetrics and Gynecology with an elective in Neurology at the University of California Medical Center in Irvine. He then shifted his specialty to Behavioral Medicine and received his initial training in biofeedback/neurofeedback in Behavioral Medicine from the leading doctors in the world in biofeedback at the renown Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. In 1980, he co-founded the Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine. Seeking to better understand the link between illness and the mind, Dr. Velkoff served as the clinical director of an international research study on psychoneuroimmunology with the UCLA School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. This was a follow-up study to an earlier clinical collaborative effort with UCLA School of Medicine demonstrating how the Drake Institute's stress treatment resulted in improved immune functioning of natural killer cell activity. Dr. Velkoff served as one of the founding associate editors of the scientific publication, Journal of Neurotherapy. He has been an invited guest lecturer at Los Angeles Children's Hospital, UCLA, Cedars Sinai Medical Center-Thalians Mental Health Center, St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, and CHADD. He has been a medical consultant in Behavioral Medicine to CNN, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, Univision, and PBS.”