About one quarter of commercially-insured children who are treated with medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder also receive psychotherapy, and the percentage is far lower in many parts of the country, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Published as a research letter in the Sept. 22 edition of JAMA Pediatrics, the study is the first to document the substantial variation in receipt of talk therapy among U.S. children treated with ADHD medication, varying more than six-fold across counties in the United States.
For many children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, medication alone can manage symptoms. But evidence shows that some affected children do better and can take lower doses of stimulant medications when they receive behavioral therapy along with ADHD drugs.
"Treatment of ADHD in children generates lots of controversy, primarily because of potential for overuse and abuse of stimulant medications," said Dr. Walid F. Gellad, the study's lead author and an adjunct scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "We wanted to find out among those who receive ADHD medications, how many are also receive billed psychotherapy services? The answer is few, but it actually depends on where you live."
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