Health
ADHD guidelines set
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 12, 2007
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has developed new practice guidelines, called a Practice Parameter, as well as a pocket card summary of that document, for the evaluation and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Both are intended to teach health care professionals about the disorder, which the academy calls a medical illness on a par with diabetes or asthma. ADHD can be successfully managed but not cured, the group said.
As there is a shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists, most children and teens with ADHD are treated by primary care physicians.
The new documents are available online (link). The parameter document details the effects, supported by long-term data, of treating ADHD with and without medications, and the pocket version provides a portable summary.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/03/12/hlbf0312.htm.
