The Effectiveness of Parent Management Training on Improvement of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Children with Epilepsy: single subject study

The prevalence of behavioral problems is significantly high in children with epilepsy compared to the children with other chronic illnesses which do not affect the central nervous system. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neuro-developmental disorder characterized by high levels of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. ADHD is a common comorbid disorder with epilepsy. Thus, the children with epileptic seizure are in increased risk of cognitive disorders particularly attention of problems. Parent Management Training (PMT) can be defined as an approach for the treatment of child behavioral problems in which parents are trained to alter their child's behavior. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of PMT on improvement of symptoms of ADHD in a child with epilepsy.
The study design was single-subject using multiple baseline design. The samples were parents of two children with epilepsy and comorbid ADHD who completed Child Symptom Inventory (CSI-4) part A, in order ADHD symptoms could be diagnosed, Participants received 9 sessions of PMT ( 1-1.5 hour for each session per week). They completed CSI-4 part A in pretest, during the treatment, and one month follow-up. Data were analyzed by visual analysis.
Results indicated the effect of PMT on ADHD symptoms was clinically significant. Findings showed positive effect of PMT on monitoring the child's behavior.
Hence, the enhancement of parents’ control skills and the improvement of parent-child interaction could result in parents’ anger management and considerable reduction in child behavioral problems and aggression.