“Unlike the American Academy of Pediatrics ADHD Clinical Practice Guideline, which focuses on more straightforward cases of ADHD, the SDBP guideline focuses on the care of children with ADHD who have complicating coexisting developmental and mental health disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, learning disorders, anxiety, and depression.  As such, the SDBP Complex ADHD guideline addresses a long neglected clinical care gap and provides a valuable new resource for pediatric health care providers. “

–Tanya Froehlich, MD, MS

More psychosocial support for children and teens with complex attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should become standard care, according to new guidelines issued Jan. 30, 2020, by the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP).

The new guideline appears in detail in a supplemental issue of SDBP’s Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Tanya Froehlich, MD, MS, Director of Research, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s was part of a national guidance panel that developed the guidelines.

Approximately 7.5 percent of children and adolescents in the U.S. have ADHD, and about two-thirds of them have one or more co-existing conditions such as learning disorders or mental health problems.

The guidelines designed for complex ADHD supplement another recent set of guidelines for more straightforward cases of ADHD recently published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which Froehlich also helped design.

Read more about the MeHealth app to help pediatricians work with the AAP guidelines on our science blog

Listen to Froehlich’s perspectives on evolving treatment approaches for ADHD on a CHADD podcast interview.