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Mental Health

Treating ADHD During the School Year

Summary & Participants

The school year can be an especially troubling time for children diagnosed with ADHD. Fortunately, with the right balance of therapies, many children have gotten back on track to scholastic success. Join our panel as they take a look at how different treatment options can help your child in school.

Medically Reviewed On: July 10, 2008

Webcast Transcript

What I would like to say is that every child has the right to be tested on and tried with the medicine, but medicine isn't necessarily the right thing for every child. It's one of the important options. Parents should reject it out of hand. Doctors, of all people, shouldn't reject it out of hand, and should be -- should understand and be aware of how to use those treatments.

LISA CLARK: If medication is agreed upon, are once a day medications as effective as twice a day?

PETER JENSEN, MD: We've actually had several medications come to market. That the child can take once daily. And this avoids going to the nurse or the teacher's office for medication at mid-day.

This is a very good thing for the children, because these medicines are just as effective as taking the multiple doses. And -- but it avoids some of the shame or the embarrassment or the stigma -- or losing your place in the lunch line, these things are important for kids -- that you have to face sometimes with the two or three times daily medicines.

LISA CLARK: Is once-a-day medication more costly?

PETER JENSEN, MD: It can be slightly more costly, but in actual fact, I think the prices are coming down in some of these medicines. And it's a good alternative for parents to explore.

LISA CLARK: What about side effects? Is there a difference between once-a-day or twice-a-day medication?

PETER JENSEN, MD: What we know about the side effects of the once-a-day medicines versus twice or three times daily is that they're actually the same or even less. So you don't have the peaks and valleys or the ups and downs of several doses, when you take the once-daily medicine, so sometimes parents notice the child might be cranky or irritable at the end of the dose.

You get rid of some of those problems, and parents actually in general prefer -- and can tell the difference in the child's behavior -- between the once-daily and the several-times-daily medicines.

LISA CLARK: Doctor, let's talk about behavior therapy. How can that help?

PETER JENSEN, MD: Well, the behavior therapy helps the child begin to take more active responsibility for his or her behavior. So if the child is being reinforced or assisted with appropriate kinds of rewards for staying on task, minding the teacher, playing well with peers, the child becomes more aware and more conscious of those behaviors. And when the medicine is wearing off -- or other periods where the medicine isn't being given -- the child has, then, the opportunity to actively work on those behaviors.

What we tend to think is it's the combination of the medicine with the behavior therapies that for many children is the most effective way to go.

LISA CLARK: What specific sorts of things are we talking about in terms of behavior therapy?

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