AUTHOR=Paiva Gabrielle Chequer de Castro , de Paula Jonas Jardim , Costa Danielle de Souza , Alvim-Soares Antônio , Santos Daniel Augusto Ferreira e , Jales Julia Silva , Romano-Silva Marco Aurélio , Miranda Débora Marques de 

TITLE=Parent training for disruptive behavior symptoms in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a randomized clinical trial

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1293244

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1293244

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Background:      Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects 5% of children and 2.5% adults worldwide. Comorbidities are frequent, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) reaches 50%. Family environment is crucial for the severity of behaviors and for prognosis. In middle income countries, access to treatment is challenging, having more untreated children than under treatment. Face-to-face behavioral parent training (PT) is a well-established intervention to improve child behavior and parenting. Method: A clinical trial was designed to compare PT- online and face-to-face effects to a waiting list group. Outcomes were the ADHD and ODD symptoms, parental stress and styles, and quality of life. Families were allocated into three groups: standard treatment (ST); ST + PT online; ST + face-to-face PT. We used repeated measures ANOVA for pre x post treatment analysis corrected for multiple comparisons.      Results and discussion: Parent training was effective in reducing symptoms of ADHD (p=0.030) and ODD (p=0.026) irrespective of modality (p=1.000). The combination of ST and PT was also associated with better quality of life in the physical domain for patients (p=0.009) and their parents (p=0.050). Besides preliminary data, online intervention seems effective for parenting and to improve social acceptance of children. The potential to reach many by an online strategy with a self-directed platform may imply in effectiveness with a low cost for public health to support parents’ symptoms management.