While some parents prefer no medications for their children with ADHD, many others are administering them with good results. The most common recommendation I hear is, “Use medication AND behavioral interventions.” Don’t just pop a pill and expect everything to come into focus. If a child or young adult does not know how to organize his school work, taking a pill that stimulates a neuro-receptor in his brain will not help him learn that executive skill. For parents struggling with this decision, I would like to present the many “pros” I have read about medication. Yes, there are some “cons,”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for ADHD
A great book on the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, for people who have ADHD has just been released in paperback. While it is intended for therapists who want to help people with ADHD to build skills in executive functioning, the first half of the book presents evidence about the areas in life where working adults may struggle and fail, in spite of being talented, articulate and hard-working. It’s called Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD: Targeting Executive Dysfunction by Mary V. Solanto. She is a psychiatrist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. I’ve taken