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For years, if a child was diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), the easiest and seemingly best way to treat the condition was through a prescription of a drug like Adderall or Ritalin. New research, however, suggests that this one-size-fits-all therapy may not be the only way to treat the condition after all. Dr. Gail Saltz is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital and the host of the iHeart podcast “How Can I Help?”; she appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning to postulate on whether behavioral training might be a drug-free response to A.D.H.D.
As Dr. Saltz told host Ken Rosato, sitting in for Larry Mendte, the jury is still out on the overall effectiveness of behavioral therapy, though the potential is there: “We keep moving, trying to find causes, trying to find what the differences are. We do know… that stimulant medications, in the moment, can be helpful for specific behavioral pieces of ADHD, but they’re sort of like a Band-Aid, if you will. They’re not treating the underlying problem; they’re trying to help with the behavioral symptoms caused by that problem, that a kid can function in a classroom, if they’re unable to… but overall… there are actually behavioral treatments- psychotherapy treatments- that really can help with that an may even be better, in some ways, than stimulants, so it’s a mixed bag.”
Dr. Saltz ultimately recommends finding a doctor or psychologist who knows the condition to evaluate which course of treatment is best for you at the given time: “Find someone who really understands A.D.H.D. and can re-evaluate with you periodically if this is really what you should be doing or if this alone is what you should be doing.”