Longitudinal evaluation of treatment response with attention-deficit/hyperactivity total scores recoded (ADHDt) by cluster, at three and six months

Initial evaluation and treatment response not medicated3 months evaluation6 months evaluation
Ret.NBRTxGBRTxNBRTxGBRTx
CnADHDt (SD)RTxnnADHDtnADHDtnADHDtnADHDt
C17015.8 (1.2)MPH69696.0 (2.3)696.0 (2.3)695.8 (2.1)695.8 (2.1)
C25815.5 (1.0)CBZ38188.7 (1.5)2013.5 (2.3)367.6 (2.8)214.2
C32515.5 (1.5)VAL1586.3 (1.2)713.7 (2.3)155.1 (1.2)--
C41714.2 (1.2)RSP1045.7 (1.6)615.7 (1.2)107.6 (1.3)--
C53814.7 (1.4)VAL30127.9 (1.3)1814.3 (1.9)307.6 (1.7)--
C62213.6 (1.4)PST201210.2 (3.2)815.7 (3.2)1611.1 (3.7)414.1
All23015.2 (2.7)-1821237.0 (2.4)5912.5 (2.0)1767.12 (2.9)614.2

The first four columns represent the initial evaluation with ADHD scores recoded from the original instruments in order to obtain a suitable score for statistical purposes (see Materials and methods for details) and recommended treatment for each of the clusters: Cluster (C) number, number of subjects in each cluster (n), group mean ADHDt scores and standard deviation (SD) in the blue cells, recommended treatment in the fourth column with clear cells: methylphenidate (MPH), carbamazepine (CBZ), valproate (VAL), risperidone (RSP), psychotherapy (PST). The fifth column is the number of subjects that continued under the attendings’ care at three months, followed by two columns (green cells) with number of subjects receiving the neurophysiologically based recommended treatments (NBRTx) and the group mean ADHDt scores, and two more columns with gray cells representing the children receiving the guidelines based recommended treatments (GBRTx). The last four columns contain the results at the six-month evaluation. Since after the 3-month results, most children were switched to the NBRTx, the number of children in green cells increased, leaving only 6 children on the GBRTx, gray cells. Notice that C1, first row was left with clear cells because the NBRTx was the same as the GBRTx, MPH. In this cluster, the favorable response was seen since the first evaluation, decreasing ADHDt mean scores from 15.8 to 6.0 and 5.8 at 3- and 6-month, respectively. In contrast, C2, C3, C4, and C5, children had good response to the NBRTx but not to the GBRTx at 3-month, the ADHDt group dropped significantly after most children were switched to the NBRTx for the 6-month evaluation. Results for C6 were not as notorious, but a slight improvement was noticed with psychotherapy (ADHDt scores from 13.6 to 10.2 and 11.1 at 3 and 6 months), and a statistically unsignificant worsening with MPH (ADHDt 14.1)