Practitioners may also wish to create individualized rating scales to measure medication effects. The assessment of the efficacy of the medication should be collected on a weekly basis and should include teacher ratings, parent ratings, side effects ratings, and observations of classroom behavior. Monitoring should be used to determine changes in behavior as well as the lowest does that should be used that will have the greatest change and the fewest side effects. Acceptability is defined as the attitude toward treatment, including the,attitudes of the community, parents, teachers, peers, and the child. The more positive the attitudes toward medication management of childhood disorders, the more acceptable drug treatment will be.
Compliance is the extent to which a person's behavior coincides with medical advice.
Physicians frequently overestimate compliance. Factors which affect adherence include the developmental status of the child, the child's cognitive ability, the child's social and emotional development, the child's biological functioning, the family system, and the medical system. Interventions which are recommended to improve compliance include education, supervision, visual cues and reminders, self-monitoring,,reinforcement contingencies, social support, reducing barriers, and,increasing the problem solving abilities of the child. The most important factor is to educate the child and family about the drug. It is also beneficial to provide the child with as much control as possible, such as,how and when the medication will be taken.