The Medication Question
Medication is the most common form of ADHD "treatment". While this may help some individuals with ADHD in the short term, the symptoms often remain despite the drugs, or return once medication is stopped. Stimulant medication can have lasting negative consequences which affect many people for life.
Some people do not benefit from medication at all. ​A recent study, published in the JAMA Psychiatry, investigated the effect of stimulant ‘ADHD’ drugs on the brains of children and young adults. The results of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, the ‘gold standard’ for evidence in academic medicine, indicate that methylphenidate (Ritalin) has a distinct effect on children that may lead to lasting neurological changes.​ “Because maturation of several brain regions is not complete until adolescence, drugs given during the sensitive early phases of life may affect neurodevelopmental trajectories that can have more profound effects later in life,” the study authors warn. “Indeed, the most comprehensive trial on the long-term effects of ADHD, the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD (Full Text), reported that six years after enrolment, medication management was associated with a transient increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression.”​
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​This study provides the first evidence that the use of ADHD drugs in children can alter the brain’s development in significant and potentially lasting ways.
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​​Even when medications help, they do not solve the core problem in ADHD – reduced activity in the brain’s attention networks. That is why people with the condition may need to continue to take the medications every day, probably for the rest of their lives. But most people do not continue medication long term. More than 75% of teens refuse to take their medication. Sadly, adolescence is the time when they need help the most: Academic demands increase. Risks from impulsivity grow dramatically. Impulsive aggression at recess is one thing: poor impulse control while driving or dating is a much more serious risk. While medication may provide temporary relief from the symptoms of ADHD, when you use neurofeedback for ADHD, you get to the root of the problem by training the brain’s attention networks to function better. We know from many studies that the brain is capable of enormous change and reorganization through practice. Neurofeedback provides massive practice to strengthen attention networks so that you can sustain attention where needed and disengage where required.​
Neurofeedback for ADHD is a natural and safe option without medication.
When Medication is Needed
Brain Map to guide type of medicine
Can ADHD Be “Cured”?
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Stimulant medication and behaviour therapy are the most often applied and accepted treatments for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity-Disorder (ADHD). In a recent study published just this year, 2020, researchers conducted two meta-analyses to examine how the non-pharmacological clinical intervention of neurofeedback fits on the continuum of empirically supported treatments. The studies compared APA-recommended treatments (medication and behaviour therapy) with neurofeedback to examine the efficacy of treatment as well as remission rates. The study revealed that,
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"standard neurofeedback protocols in the treatment of ADHD can be considered as well-established and ‘efficacious and specific’, with medium to large effect sizes and 32–47% remission rates and sustained effects as assessed after 6–12 months."
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This means that up to almost one half of ADHD sufferers no longer met the criteria for ADHD diagnosis following standard neurofeedback protocols. Patient’s core ADHD symptoms were resolved and did not return even after a year. This sort of improvement is unheard of with standard treatments: remission seemingly cannot be attained through medication and behavioural therapy alone.
ADHD is a multifaceted condition with both neurobiological and environmental underpinnings. This means that ADHD is not solely a brain-based disorder but is an emergent phenomenon of the complex interaction of nutrition, sleep, family and social dynamics, media consumption, exposure to molds/toxins, microbiome health, genetic predisposition and epigenetic expression, and many other factors.
Neurofeedback alone cannot resolve every issue contributing to this condition, but it can dramatically improve upon the neurological disregulation occurring in the ADHD brain. When behavioural reactivity and impulse control issues are resolved through self-regulation, then amending the environmental factors which contribute to the condition becomes a much more manageable task.
At the Brain Training Centre we take an holistic approach to ADHD. We strive to support our clients and their families to better understand the dynamics of this condition and how individuals can come to be their optimal selves. It is our philosophy that the ADHD brain, when functioning well, can be an incredible gift.