It is now well recognized the Attention–Deficit-Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic disorder of childhood that extends into adulthood for many individuals. A number of impairments in daily life functioning have been identified in adults with ADHD, including marital distress, risky driving, and using less effective parenting (Barkley, 2006).
While there is some evidence that stimulant medication improves parental functioning for adults with ADHD, only one study has specifically explored the use of stimulant medication and parenting (Chronis-Tuscano, Seymour, Stine, Jones, Jiles, Rooney, et al, 2008)
The purpose of this study is to explore whether or not the stimulant medication, lisdexamfetamine, improves parent functioning. Measures of parenting behavior, parental psychosocial functioning, and child psychosocial functioning will be collected. It is hypothesized that lisdexamfetamine will be associated with some improvement in this assessment.
Seventy families with at least one parent (either mother or father who will serve as the identified subject), and young age child (ages 5-16) with ADHD will be recruited to participate in a randomized, placebo controlled trial of lisdeaxmfetamine to assess the acute and prolonged effects of medication usage on parent child interaction. The protocol will employ traditional self- report measures of parental competency and functioning used in the most widely used observation laboratory tasks.
The families will be recruited on a rolling bases and the length of the study will be approximately 8 weeks. In the first three weeks of the study, parents will complete the dose optimization phase to find the optimal dose of lisdexamfetamine. It will be initiated at a dose of 30 mg and increased to 50mg for week 2 and 70mg for week 3. During week 4 , measures of the acute effects of lidexamfetamine will collected, and parents will complete the observational laboratory parent child interaction task two times...