Can sleep help control symptoms of ADHD, and improve parents mental health?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects approximately 5% of children and adolescents, and is characterised by pervasive, developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.
Although stimulants are effective for treating the symptoms of inattention and impulsivity, reliance on them in children with ADHD remains of concern. Although most experts agree that psychosocial interventions for ADHD can be effective, doubts have been raised about the magnitude of treatment effects, as small to moderate effects have been found for parent reported outcomes but little effect has been shown using blinded (for example, teacher report) outcomes.
Here the researchers set out to examine whether behavioural strategies designed to improve children’s sleep problems could also improve the symptoms, behaviour, daily functioning, and working memory of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the mental health of their parents.
They concluded that a brief behavioural sleep intervention modestly improves the severity of ADHD symptoms in a community sample of children with ADHD, most of whom were taking stimulant medications. The intervention also improved the children’s sleep, behaviour, quality of life, and functioning, with most benefits sustained to six months post-intervention. The intervention may be suitable for use in primary and secondary care.
Read the full research:
www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h68