ADHD@Home

The treatment of children with ADHD often consists of an outpatient parent training and/or prescribing medication to children. Research has shown that many children recover well with these treatments. However, there is also a group of children for whom this does not work sufficiently. In these children it is common to start home treatment. A practitioner will come to the family's home to work with the parent(s) and the child on the child's treatment goals.

The aim of the ADHD@home project was to investigate the efficacy of a new, short-term, behavioral therapy at home (Behavioral Parent Training Groningen@home [BPTG@home]) in children with ADHD and behavioral problems that had insufficiently benefited from previous treatments. We did this in collaboration with outpatient clinics of Accare, Lentis and GGZ In de Bres. The central question was: does BPTG@home work for children with ADHD and behavioral problems who received treatment before? Additionally, we wanted to answer other questions, such as: what change do we see in children immediately after treatment and what change a longer period of time after treatment has stopped? Have parents adjusted their parenting behavior or are they experiencing parenthood differently after the treatment? 

We investigated this by comparing three groups of children and parents: the first group received the new BPTG@home treatment, the second group the usual form of home treatment (Intensive Psychiatric Home Treatment [IPG]) and the third group started one of both treatments after a period of four months. Of cource, this last group received all other necessary care during the four months waiting period (with the exception of home treatment). The group assignment was determined by drawing lots. Before, during and after the treatment or waiting period, assessments were performed, particularly in the parent(s). These assessments included questionnaires and interviews.

Parents who received BPTG@home indicated that their children had fewer behavioral problems and showed less ADHD behavior immediately after treatment. Both in comparison with children of parents who were on the waiting list for home treatment and with children of parents who received IPG. Six months after completing the treatment, parents who received BPTG@home experienced their child's behavioral problems as less problematic than parents who received IPG. Additionally, BPTG@home took less than half as long and involved less than half as many home visits than IPG.