A Comparative Study on the Effectiveness of Stimulant Therapy (Ritalin) Neurofeedback, and Parental Management Training and Interaction of the Three Approaches on Improving ADHD and Quality of Mother -Child Communication

Abstract

Introduction & Objective: This research was designed to investigate and compare the effectiveness of stimulant therapy (Ritalin), neurofeedback, parental management training and interaction of the treatments on the improvement of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and quality of mother-child communication. Materials & Methods: This is a pseudo-experimental research with pretest-posttest design including ADHD children living in Tehran 40 subjects were randomly selected from clients of child psychiatric/psychological clinic, and then placed in 4 intervention groups based on objectives of the research. The subjects were measured by Conner's Parenting Scale-48 and Parental Stress Index before and after the interventions. Recruited data were analyzed by ANCOVA. Results: The findings of the research reveals that there is a significant difference among the treatments on improving conduct and attention/concentrationproblems in other words, interaction of the treatments caused more therapeutic effect than other treatments. Also, there was no significant difference among the treatments on improving psychosomatic problems, impulsivity, anxiety, parent reinforcement, parental attachment, and parental competency.Conclusion: Finally, interaction of treatments and then ritalin had the most therapeutic effect compared to other treatments.

Keywords

• attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity
• education
• neurofeedback
• ritalin