MHM Magazine

26 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 2022 | Issue 6 MHM Not everyone with ADHD needs medication. Not everyone with ADHD wants to use medication. According to the South African guidelines, we as psychiatrists ascribe to the following approach: Treatment should always be holistic, and therefore the value of alternative strategies should not be underestimated. Complementary and alternative medicine has never been more popular. Nearly 40 percent of adults report using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) – those products and techniques not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. This hodgepodge of practices and products can leave healthcare professionals, and patients, bewildered. However, many products marketed for the management of ADHD, have not been thoroughly tested in terms of efficacy, or safety. So what evidence do we have? BACKGROUND In 2013, Sonuga-Barke et al. conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials of dietary and psychological interventions 2904 published randomised controlled trials of dietary (restricted elimination diets (RED), artificial food colouring exclusion (AFCE), and free fatty acid supplementation) and psychological interventions (attention and working memory training, cognitive training, neurofeedback (NF), and behavioural interventions (BI)) for ADHD were screened. Of these, 54 trials met inclusion criteria for the analysis. Two different analyses were performed: one where the outcome measure was based on ADHD assessments was completed by Professor Renata Schoeman Psychiatrist ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES TO MANAGE ADHD