Other Possible Alternatives To The Usual ADHD Treatment

The training of social skills, the management of behavior and qualified advice are means to improve ADHD symptoms, because their nature imposes the appropriate medication. Stimulants have proved their efficiency, but there are also alternatives in one or more of the following cases:

  • - Mild symptoms.
  • - No response to medication.
  • - Side effects of stimulants.
  • - Another disease, like anxiety, present at the same time with ADHD. Medication is often combined with other treatment.

Other possible treatments

Behavioral interventions

Parents or teachers who have to deal with ADHD children must learn how to set rules or daily activities to control the behavior of these children and the way they respond. Praise, rewards or punishments have to be used to give the child motivation in what he does. This strategy has proved itself more efficient than cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, which depend on the child's capacity to self impose changes in behavior, which is almost impossible to accomplish without the support of an adult.

The most frequent behavioral interventions for an ADHD child are:

  • - Management of behavior. Techniques - like the use of token or point systems for immediately rewarding good behavior or work, "time-out" or isolation to a chair or bedroom when the child gets out of control – are suggested to parents in a dozen weekly sessions of counseling.
  • - Social skills training. This method helps the child to control his aggressivity and impulsiveness, in anger management, and to behave more adequately in society.
  • - Family therapy counseling provides a large amount of information on ADHD and its treatment.

In case of adults, more importance is given to the improvement of relationships and organizational abilities.

Complementary and alternative medicine

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), has not been shown by researches to be effective for treating ADHD so it should not be preferred to the traditional therapies that have been proved. Further studies are required for establishing a primary treatment for ADHD. the best thing a person with ADHD can do is to benefit from safe alternative medicine together with the traditional therapies for treating the condition and it's effects. For example, biofeedback and acupuncture can help improve the overall sense of well being of a person and can relieve the muscular tension and stress.

If the alternative techniques for suppressing ADHD symptoms are taken into consideration to help the traditional therapies, a doctor's advice is the best way to manage the situation. It is not wanted for two or more therapies to interfere each other, or, together, to cause other conditions or physical or emotional disturbances.

Although individual responses to therapies are different in every case, the best technique to fight ADHD remains medication. Medication is used together with behavioral training, training and education for parents, and counseling, which are used to treat mild symptoms, for the cases that present moderate to severe symptoms.

A parent should talk openly to the specialists about their concerns of indefinite medication treatments for their children suffering from ADHD because only together they can develop the best strategy for improving the behavior and alleviate the symptoms. The medications are proved to be safe and to be of much help both for the ADHD child and for the family.