Comparison of the Effectiveness of different Treatment Methods in Child-ren's Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorders

This study was designed to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of three treating methods; namely mother’s behavioral education, Verbal self-instruction to the children, and Pharmacotherapy in children’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

In this semi-experimental study, 51 elementary students with ADHD were randomly divided to three treatment groups including mothers’ behavioral education, verbal self-instruction to the children, and control group. Moreover, 22 students with ADHD were selected among the patients referring to Hafez hospital and were put in pharmacotherapy group. Data collection tool was Child Symptoms Inventory (CSI-4). All of the subjects were evaluated by CSI-4 before and after the intervention and also 2 months later, i.e in follow up period.

The results show significant differences between the groups in mother’s evaluation of attention deficit (P = 0.04), the severity of hyperactivity-impulsivity (P = 0.005), and the general/total severity of the symptoms of disorder (P = 0.03).

The most effective treatment for the severity of attention deficit in children is verbal self-instruction. The severity of hyperactivity-impulsivity is best treated using mother’s behavioral education. Considering the result obtained in the case of general severity of symptoms in children’s ADHD, mother’s behavior education and pharmacotherapy _were the most effective and useful treatment methods.