Friday, September 17, 2010
Improving Aggression in Children with ADHD
From Stony Brook University Medical Center
Almost half of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) whose aggressive behaviors had not been effectively controlled during routine outpatient care may benefit from a combination of “first-line” stimulants and behavioral therapy.
Joseph C. Blader, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and colleagues studied 65 children between the ages of 6 and 13 who were diagnosed with ADHD and either oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder. The research team sufficiently reduced aggression in 32 of the 65 children (49 percent) after individually optimizing stimulant doses along with behavioral therapy. All had been previously treated, unsuccessfully, with standard doses of methylphenidate or dextroamphetamine, the active ingredients in stimulant medications that are standard treatments for ADHD.
These results suggest that, “prescribing stimulants may reduce the need to resort to antipsychotic medications to control severe aggression among children with ADHD,” says Dr. Blader.
Read the full article here.
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