Current Directions in ADHD and Its Treatment

314 Pages·2012·3.94 MB·English

CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN
ADHD AND ITS TREATMENT

Edited by Jill M. Norvilitis
Current Directions in ADHD and Its Treatment
Edited by Jill M. Norvilitis

Published by InTech
Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia

Copyright © 2012 InTech
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First published February, 2012
Printed in Croatia

A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com
Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected]

Current Directions in ADHD and Its Treatment, Edited by Jill M. Norvilitis
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-307-868-7

Contents

Preface IX
Part 1 Treatment Considerations 1
Chapter 1 ADHD in Children and Adolescents:
A Good Practice Guidance 3
Somnath Banerjee
Chapter 2 ADHD and Comorbid Conditions 25
Nitin Patel, Mita Patel and Harsha Patel
Chapter 3 Comorbidity in ADHD:
A Neuropsychological Perspective 47
Julio César Flores Lázaro and María Alejandra Salgado Soruco
Chapter 4 ADHD and Sleep Problems in Children 61
Elizabeth Hastings and Barbara T. Felt
Part 2 Psychopharmacology: Mechanisms and Effects 89
Chapter 5 The Neuropsychopharmacology
of Stimulants: Dopamine and ADHD 91
Paul E.A. Glaser and Greg A. Gerhardt
Chapter 6 Trends in the Prescribing and Adverse
Drug Reactions Patterns of Psychostimulants
Among Danish Children and Adolescents 111
Lise Aagaard and Ebba Holme Hansen
Chapter 7 Do Stimulant Medications for Attention-Deficit
/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Enhance Cognition? 125
Claire Advokat and Christine Vinci
Chapter 8 Motor Skills in Children with ADHD:
Comparative Study from the Farmacological Treatment 157
Jose Armando Vidarte Claros and Consuelo Velez Alvarez
VI Contents

Chapter 9 Methylphenidate and Dyslipidemia 185
Gideon Charach, Nechemia Kaysar, Alexander Rabinovich,
Ori Argov and Moshe Weintraub
Part 3 Non-Medication Interventions 193
Chapter 10 ADHD and Stress: The Role of Meditation to Reduce Stress,
and Improve Brain Function and Behavior Regulation 195
Sarina J. Grosswald and Fred Travis
Chapter 11 The Value of Coached Behaviour
Modification in the Effective Management of
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) 211
Tilla Olivier and Ana Gomes
Chapter 12 Distractor or Noise?
The Influence of Different Sounds on Cognitive
Performance in Inattentive and Attentive Children 233
Göran Söderlund and Sverker Sikström
Part 4 EEG Biofeedback 247
Chapter 13 QEEG Characteristics and Biofeedback
Modalities in Children with ADHD 249
Nada Pop-Jordanova
Chapter 14 EEG Findings in ADHD and the Application
of EEG Biofeedback in Treatment of ADHD 269
Mohammad Ali Nazari
Chapter 15 The Effect of Psycho-Educational Therapy
on Electroencephalographic Biofeedback
Scores in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder 287
Irene Nikaina, Aspa Paspali,
Georgia Kleidaria and Antigone Papavasiliou

Preface

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the most widely diagnosed behavior
disorders in childhood, with a worldwide pooled prevalence of 5.29 % (Polanczyk et
al., 2007). It is also one of the most controversial diagnoses with concerns raised about
whether it is a cultural construct or a neurobehavioral disorder (Barkley et al., 2004,
Timimi et al., 2004) and whether it is over diagnosed or under diagnosed. The
treatment of ADHD is also a matter of ongoing research and debate, with considerable
data supporting both psychopharmacological and behavioral approaches. Researchers
continue to search for new interventions to be used in conjunction with or in place of
the more traditional approaches. These interventions run the gamut from social skills
training, to cognitive behavioral interventions ,to meditation to neuropsychologically-
based techniques.
This goal of this volume is to explore the state-of-the-art in considerations of the
treatment of ADHD around the world. The 16 chapters in this volume represent the
work of 27 researchers in countries spanning the globe from Iran to Columbia,
Denmark to South Africa , and the United States. Some of the chapters in this book
provide a new way of looking at well-established treatments while others examine
treatments that are seeking the confirmation of the research community. This broad
survey covers issues related to comorbidity that affect the treatment choices that are
made, the effects of psychopharmacology, and non-medication treatments, with a
special section devoted to the controversial new treatment, neurofeedback.
The first section of the book provides an overview of treatment of ADHD and
comorbid conditions that may be of concern. Chapter 1, “ADHD in Children and
Adolescents: A Good Practice Guidance” provides a summary of the assessment and
diagnosis of ADHD. It also concisely describes the management of the disorder,
covering such topics as choices and safety in medication, non-medicinal treatments,
and a consideration of how comorbid conditions may affect treatment. Chapter 2,
“ADHD and Comorbid Conditions,” examines in more depth the identification and
treatment of psychological problems that are associated with ADHD, such as
depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder. Chapter 3,
“Comorbidity in ADHD: A Neuropsychological Perspective,” takes a different
approach to the issue from the first two chapters by examining the subtypes of ADHD
as related to different neuropsychological profiles. These profiles are in turn related to
X Preface

different comorbid cognitive and behavioral conditions. The final chapter in the first
section, “ADHD and Sleep Problems in Children,” focuses on the need for the
consideration of sleep problems in children with ADHD because of the overlap
between the two categories and the implications for treatment of ADHD.
The second section of the volume examines the psychopharmacological treatment of
ADHD. Chapter 5, “The Neuropsychology of Stimulants: Dopamine and ADHD,”
examines how dopamine’s role in ADHD is related to the action of psychostimulant
medications, as well as the role of other neurotransmitters and other medications.
Chapter 6, “Trends in the Prescribing and Adverse Drug Reaction Patterns of
Psychostimulants among Danish Children and Adolescents,” takes advantage of the
availability of data regarding the individual use of medication in Denmark to explore
both changes in prescription rates over a 10 year period and the prevalence of adverse
reactions to the various medications. Chapter 7, “Do Stimulant Medications for
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Enhance Cognition?,” reviews the
research on this topic and presents the authors’ own data that indicate that, though
stimulants improve attention and concentration, changes in other areas of cognitive
and academic functioning are inconsistent such that stimulants do not appear to
improve learning. Chapter 8, “Motor Skills in Children with ADHD: Comparative
Study from the Pharmacological Treatment,” summarizes the literature indicating that
50 % of children with ADHD have motor skill problems and describes the authors’
own research. Although such problems are common, the effect of medication and
exercise on ADHD symptoms and motor disturbance remains unclear. Chapter 9,
“Methylphenidate and Dyslipidemia,” examines the relationship between the drug
and lipid profiles, concluding that methylphenidate is related to some positive
changes in total cholesterol and lipoproteins.
The third section of the book moves from psychostimulants to an examination of non-
medication treatments. Chapter 10, “Non-Medication Treatments of ADHD,” provides
an overview of a variety of interventions, summarizing the techniques and research
regarding efficacy. Chapter 11, “ADHD and Stress: The Role of Meditation to Reduce
Stress, and Improve Brain Function and Behavior Regulation,” reports the results of two
studies examining Transcendental Meditation’s effects on ADHD symptomatology that
indicate that children with ADHD are able to learn the technique and that meditation
may reduce stress and improve executive functions. Chapter 12, “The Value of Coached
Behavior Modification in the Effective Management of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD),” describes research supporting the use of coaches in the treatment of
ADHD. Such coaches are not replacements for therapists, but come alongside those with
ADHD to help them learn to manage the practical challenges that arise in the pursuit of
goals. Chapter 13, “Distractor or Noise? The Influence of Different Sounds on Cognitive
Performance in Inattentive and Attentive Children,” reports the results of a study
examining the differential response of children with and without inattention symptoms
to background auditory noise. The authors report that such noise improves cognitive
performance in children with inattentive symptoms and provide a theoretical framework
for understanding this phenomenon.