“He was just so out of control with his hyperactivity that we sought medication at the age of four,” recalls Norine Eaton. Norine’s son Mark is now a teenager and she still works with him to conquer his attention deficit disorder. Desperate for help when Mark was just a boy, she took her doctor’s advice and began to medicate her son.

At least 5% of children in the country have ADHD. Most of these children with ADHD are being over medicated when behavioral therapy could be the answer.

“He was just so out of control with his hyperactivity that we sought medication at the age of four,” recalls Norine Eaton. Norine’s son Mark is now a teenager and she still works with him to conquer his attention deficit disorder. Desperate for help when Mark was just a boy, she took her doctor’s advice and began to medicate her son. “You wonder am I doing the right thing? How long is it going to take? You know, is this ever going to change?” questioned Norine.

Typical symptoms of ADHD include poor concentration, listening problems, tendency to lose things, problems organizing, impulsive behavior.

According to a recent study conducted at the University of Buffalo, New York teachers nationwide say about 5% of children in their classrooms have been diagnosed with ADHD, and they estimate another 5% have ADHD but are undiagnosed. Dr. William Pelham, Professor of Psychology at University of Buffalo says that many of these children will be placed on psychoactive medication by their family physician, often prompted by their child’s school.

“Medication is being overused, it’s being dramatically overused. Right now 90% of ADHD kids get medicated with a stimulant drug at some point in their lives,” says Dr. William Pelham. According to him, research has shown that if you start ADHD children on behavioral therapy, half of the children don’t ever need ADHD medication. Instead of immediately prescribing drugs Pelham recommends that behavior therapy is tried first and then add medication if needed.

The focus of behavior therapy is on academic performance at school, relationships with parents, peers and siblings, failure to obey adult requests and other social skill development. The University of Buffalo has an intensive behavioral training and treatment summer program for ADHD children.

“Our summer treatment program, that package can keep 75% of kids from going on medication while it’s being implemented. Then two years later 90% of those kids are still not medicated,” reports Dr. Pelham.

Although it can be challenging for parents like Norine, she has seen that behavior therapy along with persistence and patience does pay off. “We didn’t see the progress immediately. We learned through the program that you really need to stick with you. You need to work with this for a while before you see some of the changes.”

According to Dr. Pelham, potential ADHD drug side effects can include stunting of growth and loss of appetite. He also says that 30 years of research shows that ADHD drugs used alone do not help children avoid long-term outcomes that are a hallmark of the disorder—substance abuse, domestic problems, school dropout, delinquency and criminal behaviors.

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