Australian Guideline for ADHD
Get to know ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by the differences in brain and cognitive development.
Symptoms include difficulties with focusing attention and sustaining attention, and hyperactive and impulsive symptoms which are greater than that expected for a person’s age or developmental level.
For most people, ADHD symptoms continue into adulthood and are lifelong. This is also referenced in many other research papers including one from Barkley, Murphy, & Fischer, 2008.
What it feels like
People with ADHD can struggle to focus and concentrate, control their impulses and make decisions which take into account longer term consequences.
They can experience difficulties with planning, prioritising, getting organised and time management.
These difficulties can impact the ability to study, work, manage responsibilities, develop and maintain social relationships, enjoy leisure time and relax.
They can also negatively impact self-confidence and self-esteem
Not just a Deficit
People with ADHD have many strengths such as being adventurous, the ability to generate novel ideas, problem solve and hyperfocus (which can result in high productivity).
Not the same for everyone
ADHD can look and feel different, as people can have:
Predominantly inattention symptoms
Predominantly hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms
Both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms
Not all people get diagnosed
Despite ADHD being well understood, not all people with ADHD get identified, and many don’t receive lifelong evidence-based treatment and support.
The Australian Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline is freely available to the public and outlines the care and support that people should receive based on evidence and clinical experience.
Access to medication and non-medication treatments is critical
For a long time, ADHD has been treated as a brain chemical imbalance that can be ‘corrected’ with medication. However a Clinical Consensus Recommendation (CCR) ensures people are now to encouraged to consider stopping their medication to manage their symptoms.
But the content of the section on multimodal support is still a little weak for my experience and knowledge of research in America. The advice for clinicians using this guideline to treat someone with ADHD in Australia is only a Clinical Practice Point (CPP): guidance based on expert opinion and clinical experience, provided on important issues arising from discussion of evidence-based or clinical consensus recommendations, outside the scope of the evidence-finding process.
Apparently offering people multimodal treatment is not yet a consensus and in Australia it doesn’t quite reach the Evidence Based Recommendation level (EBR).
It is hard to fund people doing research into something that won’t make big dollars on the back end, in fact, more research into non-medicated treatments for ADHD may result in less money being spent on pharmaceutical treatments.
From research published in 2014 in America entitled Mindfulness Meditation Training for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adulthood: Current Empirical Support, Treatment Overview, and Future Directions, John T. Mitchell, Ph.D.,1 Lidia Zylowska, M.D.,2,3 and Scott H. Kollins, Ph.D.1
Overall, current empirical studies:
Support the rationale for application of mindfulness to ADHD,
Show that mindfulness is a feasible and well-accepted intervention in ADHD samples,
Provide promising preliminary support for its efficacy.
However, more methodologically rigorous trials are needed, particularly larger randomized controlled trials and assessment of long-term effects with ecologically valid measures. In addition to being a standalone treatment, mindfulness can be integrated with CBT for adults diagnosed with ADHD, which is an area that warrants future treatment development.
Adapted from an instagram post from ADHD WA, a wonderful organisation with a goal to improve the awareness of ADHD and the experience of having it.
