Behavioral Therapy

The use of ADHD medicine in our society has taken an alarming rise in the recent years. This rise appears to be continuing in the upcoming years. According to Rose: “The New York Times looks at a new report that finds a steep rise in young adults taking medicine for ADHD. The number of people twenty- six to thirty-four years old receiving drugs for the disorder doubled to six hundred and forty thousand between 2008 and 2012” (Charlie Rose). With this rise arguments have also risen as to whether the diagnosis of ADHD is being over used or if there is a true rise in cases of ADHD. This rise has also led to questions such as what will happen to these ADHD medicine dependent children when they become adults who can no longer afford the medication?

These questions have helped to spurred research into alternative forms of ADHD treatment. Behavioral therapy for children with ADHD is becoming an increasingly popular choice in both the mental health and medical fields and for this reason is the focus of this paper. Behavioral therapy allows for the education and development of coping skills in children who cannot use ADHD medication, who do not want to use it long term, and who may not have access to it as adults. Examples of the coping skills that can be learned in behavioral therapy is increased attention span, behaviors that are non-disruptive for environments such as the classroom, and ways to increase memory to multiple tasks or lists. This has led to many feeling that despite ADHD not being curable medical and mental health care providers must look at treatment plans consisting of behavioral therapy to help children who may not have access to ADHD medicine as adult learn coping skills to become better functioning

According to Lavoie:”About 10-20 percent of those with ADHD are the hyperactive-impulsive type. The most common type of ADHD, though, is a combined inattentive and hyperactive type” (Lavoie, pg. 45). The hyperactive-impulsive type is the one most commonly associated with academic troubles. This is also widely believed to be the more common type of ADHD. While the school system cannot mandate a parent place their child on ADHD medicine there is still a fair amount of pressure felt by parents/caregivers to do so once their child is diagnosed with ADHD. This pressure comes from the desire of both parents/caregivers and school officials to see the child succeed academically, stay out of behavioral trouble in school, and to do well socially. There is also a struggle in the school room on how to deal with children with ADHD who are not on medicine. What actions are appropriate for discipline? What is normal and what is not? According to the St. Louis Post: “Dr. Anderson, the Georgia pediatrician, explained that he diagnosed kids with ADHD so he could give them the medicine. But he said the real problem is bad schools and a culture that refuses to spend the money needed to fix them.” (St. Louis Post Dispatch). While short term behavioral therapy would be more expensive than medication in a lifelong sum of medications and doctors’ visits behavioral therapy could often end up being cheaper. Behavioral therapy could