Free fatty acid supplementation produced small but significant reductions in ADHD symptoms even with probably blinded assessment s , although the clinical significance of these effects remains to be determined .
Artificial food color exclusion produced larger effects but often in individuals selected for food sensitivities .
OBJECTIVE Nonpharmacological treatments are available for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) , although their efficacy remains uncertain .
The authors undertook meta-analyses of the efficacy of dietary ( restricted elimination diets , artificial food color exclusions , and free fatty acid supplementation ) and psychological ( cognitive training , neurofeedback , and behavioral interventions ) ADHD treatments .
Synthetic food colors and hyperactivity in children: a double-blind challenge experiment.
Nine hyperactive male subjects , selected on the basis of showing a favorable " response " to the Feingold diet in an earlier study , were maintained on a  strict elimination ( Feingold ) diet for 11 weeks , and were given multiple trials of placebo and challenge food material s.  Parental and teacher ratings , classroom behavior observations , and neuropsychological test scores obtained during baseline , placebo , and challenge conditions , in general , were not found to be adversely affected by the artificial color challenge material s. As expected , comparable data gathered on a matched control group showed them to receive substantially better ratings than the hyperactive subjects on the majority of the comparison measures employed . Possible explanations for the discrepancy between the dramatic clinical -anecdotal reports that have been given and the much more equivocal findings from formal experimental projects are presented
Free fatty acid supplementation produced small but significant reductions in ADHD symptoms even with probably blinded assessment s , although the clinical significance of these effects remains to be determined .
Artificial food color exclusion produced larger effects but often in individuals selected for food sensitivities .
OBJECTIVE Nonpharmacological treatments are available for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) , although their efficacy remains uncertain .
The authors undertook meta-analyses of the efficacy of dietary ( restricted elimination diets , artificial food color exclusions , and free fatty acid supplementation ) and psychological ( cognitive training , neurofeedback , and behavioral interventions ) ADHD treatments .