The content of the social skills interventions were comparable and based on a cognitive behavioural model .
The review suggests that there is little evidence to support or refute social skills training for adolescents with ADHD .
BACKGROUND Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( ADHD ) in children is associated with hyperactivity and impulsitivity , attention problems , and difficulties with social interactions .
Pharmacological treatment may alleviate symptoms of ADHD but seldom solves difficulties with social interactions .
Social skills training may benefit ADHD children in their social interactions .
We examined the effects of social skills training on children 's  social competences , general behaviour , ADHD symptoms , and performance in school .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of  social skills training in children and adolescents with ADHD .
3-year follow-up of the NIMH MTA study.
OBJECTIVE In the intent-to-treat analysis of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD ( MTA ) , the effects of medication management ( MedMgt ) , behavior therapy ( Beh ) , their combination ( Comb ) , and usual community care ( CC ) differed at 14 and 24 months due to superiority of treatments that used the MTA medication algorithm ( Comb+MedMgt ) over those that did not ( Beh+CC ) . This report examines 36-month outcomes , 2 years after treatment by the study ended . METHOD For primary outcome measures ( attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ ADHD ] and oppositional defiant disorder [ ODD ] symptoms , social skills , reading scores , impairment , and diagnostic status ) , mixed-effects regression models and orthogonal contrasts examined 36-month outcomes . RESULTS At 3 years , 485 of the original 579 subjects ( 83.8 % ) participated in the follow-up , now at ages 10 to 13 years , ( mean 11.9 years ) . In contrast to the significant advantage of MedMgt+Comb over Beh+CC for ADHD symptoms at 14 and 24 months , treatment groups did not differ significantly on any measure at 36 months . The percentage of children taking medication > 50 % of the time changed between 14 and 36 months across the initial treatment groups : Beh significantly increased ( 14 % to 45 % ) , MedMed+Comb significantly decreased ( 91 % to 71 % ) , and CC remained constant ( 60%-62 % ) . Regardless of their treatment use changes , all of the groups showed symptom improvement over baseline . Notably , initial symptom severity , sex ( male ) , comorbidity , public assistance , and parental psychopathology ( ADHD ) did not moderate children 's 36-month treatment responses , but these factors predicted worse outcomes over 36 months , regardless of original treatment assignment . CONCLUSIONS By 36 months , the earlier advantage of having had 14 months of the medication algorithm was no longer apparent , possibly due to age-related decline in ADHD symptoms , changes in medication management intensity , starting or stopping medications altogether , or other factors not yet evaluated
The content of the social skills interventions were comparable and based on a cognitive behavioural model .
The review suggests that there is little evidence to support or refute social skills training for adolescents with ADHD .
BACKGROUND Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( ADHD ) in children is associated with hyperactivity and impulsitivity , attention problems , and difficulties with social interactions .
Pharmacological treatment may alleviate symptoms of ADHD but seldom solves difficulties with social interactions .
Social skills training may benefit ADHD children in their social interactions .
We examined the effects of social skills training on children 's  social competences , general behaviour , ADHD symptoms , and performance in school .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of  social skills training in children and adolescents with ADHD .