Who to see for treatment of ADHD

Once a child is diagnosed with ADHD, where should families turn for help and treatment? We asked parents which providers their children had visited in the past 12 months to manage their condition.

When we looked at patient satisfaction with each type of provider, we saw little difference among the professionals visited. Parents were "very" or "completely" satisfied about half of the time among both medical and non-medical providers of care. These levels of satisfaction are slightly lower than those found in a recent survey of adults visiting mental-health treatment providers.

But there are some important differences among providers that can help you decide who to see for treatment.

Pediatricians (65 percent) were the providers most frequently involved in treating ADHD, followed by child psychiatrists (22 percent). This reliance on medical doctors is not surprising, given that 84 percent of the children in our survey had tried medication (see Drug treatment: Pros and cons). Nonmedical treatment providers—school professionals other than psychologists (19 percent), school psychologists (18 percent), clinical psychologists (17 percent), and learning-disability specialists with master's degrees (12 percent)—were almost equally involved in treatment. (See an ADHD evaluation checklist for parents to bring to any treatment provider.)

How often to see providers

Those who sought a pediatrician's help were most likely to visit two to four times a year. In contrast, those visiting a psychiatrist or child psychiatrist did so five to 12 times a year. There were no differences in satisfaction or outcome with the various providers related to frequency except when it came to school psychologists. The more frequently a child visited a school psychologist, the more satisfied parents were with the treatment their child received.

Visits to each treatment provider within the past 12 months