SCHOOL-BASED METHYLPHENIDATE PLACEBO PROTOCOLS - METHODOLOGICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES

Around 1990, psychologists and educators began to notice increasing us e of methylphenidate by students. Diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyper activity disorder by family physicians and pediatricians was most comm only based on brief behavioral descriptions by parents and, infrequent ly, by use of rating scales. At that time, the present researchers beg an to explore the development of a school-based, methodologically soun d, and inexpensive method of assessing the efficacy of stimulant medic ations, which would ensure reasonable compliance by teachers, parents, and students in monitoring the effects of medications and placebos. T his article focuses on the methodological issues involved in choosing instruments to monitor behavior, once a comprehensive evaluation has s uggested trials on Ritalin. Case examples illustrate problems of teach er compliance in filling out measures, supplying adequate placebos, an d obtaining physician cooperation, and with the practical issue of pro viding adequate data without overwhelming the time and resources of pa rticipants. Emerging school-based methodologies are discussed with rec ommendations for future efforts.