Anticipating the Response to Amphetamine Therapy in the Treatment of Hyperkinetic Children

Abstract

It appears that there are two kinds of significant variables pertinent to a positive response to amphetamines: (1) organic factors, which appear primary, and (2) emotional factors, which, if present, counteract or interfere with the drugs' action. In general, those children responded positively to the drug who showed an organic background, positive parent-child relationship, and the absence of severe psychiatric problems in the parents. Seventy-five percent of the O and OE children with parents who were not grossly deviant improved while none became worse. As with all retrospective studies the absence of a control group prevents examination of such factors as "placebo effect" or the effect of other services received at the Center or in school. However, since positive responses were usually immediate and were maintained over extended periods of time, often after other forms of treatment were unsuccessful, it is felt that these other variables were not significant contaminants.