What do parents/caregivers want from medication for ADHD among offspring?

I know the title of this post - "What do parents/caregivers want from medication for ADHD among offspring?" - might seem a little obvious but I don't see such research as meaningless. Indeed, I was drawn to blogging about the paper from Melissa Ross and colleagues [1] precisely because it is obvious that parents/caregivers have a vested interest in the management of offspring issues with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and as such, their views should and do count.

Medicines indicated for treating/managing ADHD have cropped up on this blog before (see here for example). Allowing for the fact that such medicines are like all medicines insofar as having a cost-benefit ratio to consider, the medicines typically indicated for ADHD can literally be life-changing (see here) and indeed on occasion, life-saving (see here). The key I always think is good medicines management and regular clinical input in terms of monitoring for efficacy and any unwanted side-effects.

Ross et al talked to approaching 200 parents/caregivers of children and young adults diagnosed with ADHD, asking them to consider various issues including "desired improvements in their child's ADHD" in light of quite a bit of ADHD medication use. We are told that: "A validated Best-Worst Scaling instrument assessed priorities among 16 concerns when considering ADHD medication."

Results: white mothers of children with ADHD formed the majority voice among participants, and they listed some important priorities for their children. "Overall, the most important ADHD medication concerns were the child becoming a successful adult..., school behavior improvements..., and better grades." I also cast a 'good for you' smile over another observation: "Others thinking badly of the child was a significantly less important concern" as I hark back to other work on another label where 'negative judgements' have been mentioned (see here).

'Nuff said.

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[1] Ross M. et al. Caregivers' Priorities and Observed Outcomes of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Medication for Their Children. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2018 Feb/Mar;39(2):93-100.

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