Behavior Therapy
Behavior therapy, and in particular neurofeedback, is the most common and potentially the most accepted alternative treatment method for ADHD. Neurofeedback refers to the chemical messages that are sent by hormones and ions in the body and their interactions with various receptors throughout to keep it at a stable state often referred to as homeostasis. The behavior therapy method treats ADHD as a physiological imbalance. In general, children with ADHD lack important active circuits in the brain due to a lack of receptors or neurotransmitters (chemicals messages) (3). This translates to a low arousal in the regions and circuits of the brain that are associated with alertness, attention, and self control (3). Children are instructed to play cartoon-like video games that require a strategy to move a character around a simulated environment while connected to an EEG to observe the electrical activity in their brains. The idea is that these games will help children to understand important associations and neurological connections that most children their age are making. In a study published in the Journal of Psychology and Psychiatry in 2016, patients experienced at 93% retention rate of incorporating the behaviors they learned from their training sessions four months prior (4). Many children subject to cognitive training have had their symptoms significantly decrease in severity after their trials (4).
In my dataset, 81% of my sources referenced behavior as a cause or symptom of ADHD. In this particular set of data, there were multiple references to mood swings and threats to overall health if ADHD was not managed. Threats are a common tactic used by media sources to instill fear and anxiety in parents and other viewers to have their child or themselves assessed for ADHD.
