Meeting the Challenges of AD/HD

Good and Bad News from the NIMH MTA Study:  Outcomes after 8 Years

Peter Jensen, M.D.

The NIMH MTA Study is the largest-ever federally funded study comparing the currently best known approaches to treat AD/HD, medication, behavioral therapy, and the combination.  In this presentation Dr. Jensen describes the initial results through 14 months during the period that children and families were randomly assigned to these 3 treatment approaches, or to regular community care.  Despite the impressive results through 14 months of the relative benefits of the various treatments, a different pattern altogether emerged during later follow-up through 8 years.  Dr. Jensen reviews both the early and late results, and discusses their implications for how treatments need to be improved in our communities, as well as what other non-treatment-related factors need to be addressed, in order to ensure optimal AD/HD outcomes through the teen years into adulthood.

When the Medications are not Working

David Brown, M.D.                                   

Medication therapy is usually an essential treatment tool for treating all forms of AD/HD.  When medications are used, their therapeutic benefits are most often seen in a patient within the first or second drug trials.  There are times however, when medications are not effectively addressing symptoms or problematic issues for a given patient, despite multiple medications and aggressive dosages being utilized.  This presentation and discussion will attempt to cover the factors involved in such situations and cover analysis and potential solutions to the problems/obstacles that lead to apparent medication ineffectiveness.

Procrastination:  Winning “The Delay Game”

Debra Moore, M.A.                    

Procrastination may well be the most pervasive AND the most underrated bad habit in America.  It’s a subject to joke about on t-shirts (“I’ll Get Around to Procrastinating Later…”) or comic strips, and practically everyone alive has procrastinated about some task(s) at some point.  However, for ADD individuals, it’s a behavior pattern that needs to be taken much more seriously because it can lead to serious harm.  When “waiting till the last minute” becomes a lifestyle instead of a last resort, it becomes a game similar to Russian roulette; the players may dodge bullets for a while, but at some point, the chamber will be empty. This workshop explains why those with ADD are especially susceptible to developing patterns of procrastination and offers practical suggestions for helping them improve their skills at beating “The Delay Game”. 

Helping tour Child Survive a Bad Choice:  Strategies for Parents

Rusty Lozano, M. Ed.., LPC, BCIA and Natalya Ann Edwards, Ph.D., NCC         

Today’s world is seemingly different from the world we knew just twenty years ago.  Mainstream music and adolescent pop culture reaches out to our children through television, radio, cell phones, and the internet.  With the development of new and easily attained street drugs, abuse of prescription medications, extreme amateur dare devil stunts, and early age sex; there are more ways for our children to get stuck making bad choices in their life, and there are consequences.  This workshop will explore an array of new issues children face and identify common parent reactions.  The presentation offers strategies on how to be helpful to your child during this challenging time in their life.   

Determining the Purpose of Misbehavior & Choosing Behavioral Strategies Based on the Purpose of Behavior

Sandy Hanson, M. Ed.                                

Understanding the purpose or function a behavior serves for an individual is a crucial first step in promoting positive behavior change. This presentation will offer instruction on identifying the function a behavior serves and choosing behavioral strategies based on the function to help the students get their needs met in more socially acceptable ways.

Start Low, Go Slow, Think Twice Before You Say No, Multiple and High Doses

Michael Kramer, M.D. and Stuart Robinson, Ph.D.    

Although over nine million adults are estimated to have AD/HD, studies indicate that as many as three times as many adults are never diagnosed or treated. Another risk, that in many ways is far more significant, concerns those adults who are diagnosed, but are under-treated. This possibility becomes especially serious after considering that the implications of under-treated AD/HD in adults include alcohol and substance abuse, divorces, anti-social behavior, higher employee absenteeism, lower worker productivity, higher accident rates among others. Under-treated AD/HD not only leads to a lower quality of life for adults with AD/HD, but the stress and anxiety that results from living a lifetime with under-treated AD/HD will likely end up compromising immune systems, raising blood pressure cholesterol, complicating medical conditions, worsening depression, if not just lowering overall health. If this is the case, then it is especially tragic if patients and healthcare professionals are making deliberate decisions to under-treat adult patients because of misinformation, misperceptions, misunderstandings and myths about administering AD/HD medications at Effective Dose levels.  This presentation demonstrates an clinical approach to treating AD/HD in adults to the full extent that the patient’s condition justifies using traditional medical and behavioral treatments and techniques, applied in interdisciplinary healthcare context, that allows for the option of administering multiple or high doses of medications when rigorously monitored and managed. Ethical issues at each stage of treatment are identified and addresses.

Building Partnerships between Families, Healthcare Providers and Educators

Peter Jensen, M.D.                                                             

The last 5 years has witnessed a growing appreciation about the importance of close partnerships and working collaborations between families, the medical community, educators, and advocates, in improving AD/HD services and treatments in local communities.  In this nuts and bolts workshop, Dr. Jensen presents a number of tools and strategies that each of the potential partners can use to engage the other critical members of AD/HD family partnerships. 

Creating and Using Signaling Programs to Increase Attending Behavior              

Sandy Hanson, M. Ed. 

The use of a signaling program is an excellent management strategy for increasing the rate of on-task/attending behavior and decreasing undesired behavior.  This strategy involves using a series of random audio signals that cue the teacher, parent, or employer to look for on-task or other desired behavior.  Signaling programs have been used successfully in homes, special education classrooms, general education classrooms, and work environments.  They have been used effectively with all grade levels, including adults.  Detailed information will be provided on setting up your own signaling program.

How Are Your Soft Skills?  Addressing Interpersonal Skills Issues in Adults with AD/HD

Robin Binnig, Ph.D. and Amanda Glover, M.A.                              

This presentation will address how AD/HD can affect interpersonal interaction in the workplace and in social settings. Typical social problems faced by adults with AD/HD:  friendships, marital relations, legal issues, etc. as well as interventions for “soft skills” for adults with AD/HD will be reviewed. Industrial/Organizational Psychology research shows that people most frequently lose their jobs due to interpersonal issues rather than skill issues and frequently, the person who is terminated is often not given this feedback. Self-help and professional help for soft skills development will be discussed such as counseling, group counseling, coaching, training, and even acting classes. Specific manifestations of AD/HD such as emotional symptoms and interpersonal style, including the biological underpinnings and how these may affect emotional and interpersonal development and skills will be reviewed. 

Alternative Treatments

Mollie Kuchta, RNC          

This presentation will discuss the type of alternative medications, treatments and media products which claim to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Helping Children with AD/HD who Miss and Misinterpret Social Cues

Susan Istre, Ph.D., LPC-S, BCPC                       

Children with attention problems commonly also have other co-morbid conditions, including learning disabilities, behavior problems, and social deficits.  They often feel lonely, isolated, and rejected.  Part of the reason for this is an information processing problem:  they fail to accurately read social situations and may assume that another person is acting in an unfriendly or aggressive way when they are not.  This leads the child to react in unfriendly ways that escalate their social difficulties.  This workshop will examine causes and solutions to this common problem and include numerous practical interventions.

Optimal Approaches with AD/HD Medication

Peter Jensen, M.D.           

The NIMH MTA study and other studies since then have demonstrated that AD/HD medications are often used in a relatively ineffective manner.  Educating our families and doctors about how the medications should be used, including medication choice, actual dosing strategies, tracking of symptoms and side effects, is an urgent national priority.  Dr. Jensen provides hands-on guidance in these optimal approaches, with ready-to-use implications and applications for families and physicians.

Logical Answers for Illogical Lifestyles:  Critical Thinking Skills and ADD Management                    

Debra Moore       

Changing the life patterns of those with ADD can be a daunting challenge, for the core symptom of the disorder, impulse, results in uncontrolled behaviors, irrational responses to problem situations, and poor choices.  This workshop explores a cognitive training approach that has helped many ADD teens and adults improve their sense of self-control and their functional abilities.  By studying the fundamental principles of logic and by applying critical thinking to real-life contexts, individuals with ADD can develop the skills required to battle impulsivity and the confidence needed to solve problems independently.

Real Life AD/HD!  Educating Children and Teens about AD/HD

Chris Dendy, M.S. and Tommy Dendy, B.S.                       

Educating children, parents and teachers about AD/HD is critical. The better students understand themselves and why they do the things they do, the more likely they are to cope successfully with their AD/HD.  This nuts and bolts session features advice from 30 teens with AD/HD who give scientific facts and advice for common challenges (a video).

Anxiety and Aggression in Pre-Schoolers

Erin Lozano, M.Ed., LPC

All too frequently we see preschool children who get in trouble for being overly aggressive:  they argue, yell, scream, hit other children and adults, don’t mind, and are socially rejected by their peers.  They er of young children with excesty:  they are overly dependent on their parents, worry, are socially isolated, fear school, and can even be selectively mute. It is important to understand causes as well solutions to help these young children before these negative patterns of behavior become more fixed and severe.  We will explore both of these emotional reactions and identify helpful and practical solutions for parents, caregivers, teachers, and counselors.

Stress:  A Unique Psychophysiological Perspective

Rusty Lozano, M.Ed., LPC, BCIA                                                       

Most often when people experience stress it is often accompanied by an emotional reaction.  The stressor takes on a life of its own, being sustained by the reinforcing thoughts and the sensations in the body.  Many times the indicators of this stress presence goes unnoticed.  What if there was a way to determine the presence of thought provoking images in the mind that sustain stress?  What if there was a way to determine the presence of stress in the body by recognizing the self perpetuating sensations that maintain stress?  Well there is.  This workshop explains the dynamics behind the “mind/body” connection of the stress phenomenon and the unconscious behaviors that reinforce the stress experience. In addition, the presentation offers methods for addressing these problems successfully.

Dealing with defiant or challenging children/teens can leave those around them feeling depleted and overwhelmed. Their strong reactions and explosive behavior can cause parents and schools to accommodate them instead of helping them learn better coping skills.  Many parents end up overreacting or “walking on eggshells,” but over time these approaches backfire.