Treatment alternatives for hyperactive children - a comment on "problem children" and stimulant drug treatment.

Drug treatment of hyperactivity is palliative not curative, is often a response to adult complaint rather than child disorder, and is unlikely to prove, in the long run, to be the best approach to the treatment of hyperactivity. Concern about the overprescription of stimulants needs to be based on accurate data, and little is known of prescription practices in Australia, which must be estimated from general data on prescription of stimulants. Behavioural approaches to treatment require a much greater effort in promulgation and development, and are almost certainly under-used at present, but like drug treatments, have not been shown to have effects which outlast treatment and are not free from hazard. The difficulties of distinguishing hyperactive from conduct-disordered children appear to be procedural, rather than fundamental, and can be resolved partly by conceptualizing hyperactivity within a trait rather than a disease model.