Treating Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Medicine Only Or CBT?

Treatment of Autism

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Treatment of Autism

Introduction

When it comes to the treatment of the autism, the important thing that has to be kept in mind is that what are some of the strategies that are going to be used during the course of the treatment. There are large number of people who are of the point of view that the medication is something that is going to be bring about the long-term improvement. There is no real merit of the exercises and activities that are carried out without medication and it is imperative that some sort of balance is being achieved in terms of how the other activities are being done. On the other hand, there are large number of people who are of the point of view that the side effects that are witnessed due to the medication are such that they are not going to be cured with the normal medication and thus, it is imperative that some sort of alternative methods are being used to bring about the improvement in the condition of the patient who is suffering from autism. One gets to see large number of research articles discussing the merits of both the approaches and in this paper, the same approach is going to be used to have an insight about the rationale behind the method of the treatment that is being used as far as the treatment of the autism is concerned.

Claims of Using Non-Medication for the Treatment

“A 14-month randomized clinical trial of treatment strategies for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” is the first article that is going to be discussed. This article talks about how the randomized trial for the clinical patients that were suffering from autism was carried out and what sort of improvement that it brought towards the conditions of the patients. This article talks about how different behaviour therapies that are being used extensively for the treatment of the autism are not supposed to bring about any long-term improvement. The article talks about some of the alternative treatments that are being used commonly for the treatment of the autism and the relative ineffectiveness of these treatments. The experiment is discussed and there is enough empirical evidence that is being provided during the article to make sure that enough insight is developed in terms of how these types of alternative treatments are needed to be worked out. The article talks about the merits of using different sort of treatments in the combination to make sure that there is considerable improvement in the condition of the patient. The idea that is being resonated and the underlying theme that one gets to see in the article is that how medication is the primary consideration when it comes to the treatment of the autism. It has to be given precedence over some the alternative medications. Another thing that is being talked about in the article is that what medication at times alone is sufficient to make sure that the long-term changes are brought into the condition of the patient at the given point of time. In the hindsight, the indication that is given in the article is that carefully crafted medication is one of the thing that is going to bring about visible changes in the position of the patient that is suffering from the case of the autism and without intensive care and medication, the benefits are not going to be there at the first place. There are some modest advantages but medication management along with the community care treatment is something that is the most effective as far as the care and management goes.

Claims of Using Medication for the Treatment

The second article that is going to be talked about here is “A Potential Natural Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence from a National Study”. In this article, the usage of the green setting and the change in the natural inhabitant is going to be discussed as a method that can be used to make sure that some improvement is there in the patients that are suffering from autism of any kind. The article talks about the experiment that was carried out in which 49 school and weekend activities were carried out to make sure that the correct treatment is being made possible for the patients that are suffering from autism of any kind. In the hindsight, the other important factor for the treatment is to ensure that the comparison of the activities that are conducted in the green outdoor settings are going to be used as compared to the ones that are witnessed in the built outdoor and indoor settings. The argument that is made during the course of the article is that how the likelihood that the green outdoor setting would work out well if there is a case to be made for the reduction of the ADHD symptoms that is witnessed in the children across different age groups at the particular point of time. The article talks about the results in the one series of experiments that were carried out to make sure that some sort of the treatment mechanism is being developed for the children who are suffering from autism. Other thing that was outlined by the finding was that how the previous research plays an important role in terms of the long term improvement in the result and how the common school environment is going to be playing a major role as far as how the development of the training mechanism is supposed to be developed at the given moment.

Logical Fallacies in the Articles

Comparing and contrasting both the article goes to show that how strong argument is being made when it comes to the treatment of the autism using the non-medication methods as well as the medications. The debate is still looming large that how non medication is proved to be better at making sure that there is improvement for the children who are suffering in anyway. Similarly there are articles that talk about how there is vagueness in terms of the way some of the other treatments are supposed to be working out and there is not a single method on which there is an agreement and consensus among the stakeholders with regards to the way they are supposed to be working out. Studies involving a variety of measures, treatments, populations, and research designs have produced evidence of enhanced attention after exposure to natural views and settings. “Nature” experienced in a wide variety of forms—including wilderness backpacking, gardening, viewing slides of nature, restoring prairie ecosystems, and simply having trees and grass outside one’s apartment building—has been linked to superior attention, effectiveness, and effectiveness-related outcomes.

Current Perspective and Theory

One of the things that is being missed out at the moment is that both the treatment methods are not being used in the isolation and there is a combination of techniques that is being used. Not only that, there is not much clarity as far as the way regarding how the people who are suffering from autism have responded to the treatment. There is a need to develop a definitive mechanism and this is what that is missing at the moment as far as the way totality of the treatment is supposed to be working out. Both the articles have made the strong point as far as the sort of treatment methodology has to be used in terms of the treatment. The other thing that is not being talked about in both the articles is that how the evaluation of the effectiveness is carried out. There are lot of potential issues that are needed to be resolved when it comes to the treatment is supposed to be carried out. There are major implications and the decisive argument could prove crucial in terms of the treatment. The use of experimental designs and statistical tests for mediation in some studies has helped address questions of cause and effect, and the persistence of positive findings across diverse research designs suggests that the effect of nature on inattention is robust.

Application of the Controversy

Not only that, the major problem that is witnessed in the article “A Potential Natural Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence from a National Study” is that even though it talks about conducting an empirical experiment. What is needed to be done is to make sure that the variety of other methods are needed to be tested before a definitive judgement and conclusion can be made with regards to the eventual effectiveness of the single treatment method. Not only that, when one talks about the treatment that is done without using a single medication, it should imply that a definitive treatment methodology is not being used which comes across as a major fallacy in both the articles. The finding that exposure to nature reduces “symptoms” among individuals without ADHD raises the possibility that nature might similarly affect individuals with ADHD. If so, persons with ADHD might benefit from attention restoration as well. Moreover, there are hints in the neuroscience literature that attention fatigue and ADHD are linked to the same underlying mechanism.

References

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Elia, J., Ambrosini, P. J., & Rapoport, J. L. (1999). Treatment of attention-deficit–hyperactivity disorder. New England Journal of Medicine, 340(10), 780-788.

Fuchs, T., Birbaumer, N., Lutzenberger, W., Gruzelier, J. H., & Kaiser, J. (2003). Neurofeedback treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children: a comparison with methylphenidate. Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback, 28(1), 1-12.

Jensen, P. S. (1999). A 14-month randomized clinical trial of treatment strategies for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Archives of general psychiatry, 56(12), 1073-1086.

Pliszka, S. R., Greenhill, L. L., Crismon, M. L., Sedillo, A., Carlson, C., Conners, C. K., ... & Lopez, M. (2000). The Texas Children's Medication Algorithm Project: report of the Texas Consensus Conference Panel on medication treatment of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Part I. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 39(7), 908-919.

Pliszka, S., & AACAP Work Group on Quality Issues. (2007). Practice parameter for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 46(7), 894-921.