Meta-analysis of psychologically-based treatments of Adult Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to ascertain if psychologically-based treatments of adult Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were a potentially viable form of treatment for the disorder. This study was a meta-analysis of all the available empirical studies to date on this subject. Effect sizes were calculated to determine if this type of treatment is viable.

Findings and conclusions: Four categories of psychologically-based treatment of adult ADHD were identified. These categories were: Cognitive Treatment, Psychosocial Treatment, Psychoeducational Treatment, and Neurofeedback Treatment. It was found that each overall category was potentially effective in the treatment of adult ADHD as three categories had large effect sizes and one category had a medium effect size (Cohen, 1988). The overall effect size of psychologically-based treatments was also large. The results must be interpreted cautiously as there were only seven studies that met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis.