Comment: Ongoing questioning and dilemmas
Nikos Myttas
pp 3-3
There is no clinician who has
never been challenged by the
questioning of an anxious parent regarding the length of medication treatment prescribed to their newly
diagnosed child. Parents are invariably shocked when they hear that no prediction can be made. Resorting to statistics can give them some hope, but
the prospect of their child possibly having to be on a medication (and a controversial one for that) into their adult life is not taken lightly.
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Service provision for ADHD: the view from European patient support organisations
Stephanie Clark
pp 4-10
ADHD-Europe is a newly established umbrella
organisation whose members are parent support and adult attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) associations from across Europe. In 2009, we, at ADHD-Europe, undertook
an exploratory survey of our members’ experience of service provision for the diagnosis
and treatment of ADHD patients across their lifespan.
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What does the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD tell us?
Eric Taylor
pp 8-10
Does drug treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) work in the long run? Clinicians, patients and their families need to know, but there is scant hard evidence. The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) set out to
answer some pressing practical questions about drug therapy for ADHD.
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Introducing the international and European consensus statements on ADHD
Nikos Myttas
pp 11-11
In January 2002, amid waves of controversy and in response to claims made by various organisations and individuals that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been ‘manufactured’ through the combined efforts
of American psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry, an international consensus
statement on ADHD was produced.
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International Consensus Statement on ADHD* January 2002
pp 12-14
We, the undersigned consortium of international scientists, are deeply concerned about
the periodic inaccurate portrayal of attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in media reports. This is a disorder with which we
are all very familiar and toward which many of us have dedicated scientific studies if not entire careers.
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Non-pharmacological neuroenhancement can help overcome cognitive obstacles
Claire Salter
pp 15-17
In people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), differences in the brain’s structure and function result in cognitive obstacles
that affect performance and achievement. The type, degree and extent of the cognitive obstacles are unique to each individual.
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How to manage ADHD in the work environment
Jo Todd
pp 18-21
Although attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often thought of as a disability, many people with ADHD run successful businesses.
Being self-employed, and having received the right help to develop an infrastructure for managing routine day-today
tasks, they can focus their energy, innovativeness and creativity on developing a
business. By contrast, managing an employee with ADHD can be a nightmare: high levels of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness
are not the core attributes of most competence frameworks, and the employee with ADHD
often finds these characteristics mentioned
only as negative aspects of an appraisal.
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Ethics in child psychiatry: dilemmas and solutions
Joulietta Kalli- Laouri
pp 22-23
As in all medical specialties, the discussion regarding
information and informed consent comes into play in child psychiatry, due to the
public debate surrounding doctor–patient relationships.
Patients now more comprehensively understand their rights and have the
ability to claim them, while practitioners are legally liable for their decisions and can face civil and criminal prosecution if something
goes wrong. At the same time, the internet has increased the volume of information that patients have access to, which changes their relationship
with practitioners.
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