National consultant team position paper in child and adolescent psychiatry on the comprehensive (including psychotherapy) treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and hyperkinetic disorder.
In adolescents, it is advisable to negotiate a contract together based on mutual consent more than the use of token systems, rules and consequences systems and to place more emphasis on procedures that teach coping with one's own behaviour.
- Child therapy
The effectiveness of holiday therapy programmes involving social and coping skills training has been proven. The effectiveness of individual child therapy approaches is limited in relation to the child's core deficits, whereas individual child therapy may be indispensable for co-existing problems, such as social skills deficits, low self-esteem. However, it should not be carried out in isolation, without introducing family-centred interventions.
- Pharmacotherapy
Pharmacological treatment is a method with proven efficacy in the treatment of ADHD. It should be part of a comprehensive treatment. In cases of children with ADHD without a diagnosis of hyperkinetic disorder and co-morbid diagnoses that are a complication of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, psychoeducation , counselling and elements of behavioural therapy (possibly combined with child therapy) should always precede pharmacological treatment. In the case of children with a diagnosis of hyperkinetic disorder, with severe persistent dysfunction or with additional diagnoses that are complications of ADHD (e.g. conduct disorder, depressive syndromes), pharmacotherapy should be implemented from the start of treatment. Pharmacotherapy should always be preceded by psychoeducation, and psychotherapeutic interventions are included in the course of further treatment.
Warsaw, 2010 19 01
