Synthesising the existing evidence for non-pharmacological interventions targeting outcomes relevant to young people with ADHD in the school setting: systematic review protocol.
This is only a plan, but the finished review should give BCBAs a one-page menu of school-friendly, non-drug ADHD tools.
01Research in Context
What this study did
AFarley et al. (2022) wrote a plan. They will hunt for every school-based, non-drug fix for ADHD.
The team will look in five big research libraries. They will pull studies on kids and teens.
No results yet. This paper only tells us how they will search and what they will count.
What they found
Nothing. The review is still empty. The paper is only a map, not a treasure chest.
When the full review drops, it should give teachers a short list of tools that work.
How this fits with other research
Farmer (2012) looked at Down syndrome, Williams, and other rare gene conditions. That review says knowing the syndrome helps, but we still lack proven lesson plans for each one. AE’s future ADHD list will fill a similar gap for a much more common diagnosis.
Killeen (1995) argued that fixing school-wide setting events beats quick punishments for antisocial acts. AE’s planned toolkit may show which ADHD tricks also work at the whole-class level, linking the two views.
Trousdale et al. (2010) warn that bad air and toxins hurt attention and behavior. AE’s review could spotlight low-cost room changes—like quiet corners or better lighting—that sit between Kristie’s green-clean push and R’s big-picture climate fixes.
Why it matters
Bookmark this protocol. When the final review lands, you will have one stop for every proven non-drug strategy you can use in class tomorrow—no pill, no referral, just clear steps you can hand to any teacher.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
<h4>Background</h4>Children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairing levels of difficulty paying attention, impulsive behaviour and/or hyperactivity. ADHD causes extensive difficulties for young people at school, and as a result these children are at high risk for a wide range of poor outcomes. We ultimately aim to develop a flexible, modular 'toolkit' of evidence-based strategies that can be delivered by primary school staff to improve the school environment and experience for children with ADHD; the purpose of this review is to identify and quantify the evidence-base for potential intervention components. This protocol sets out our plans to systematically identify non-pharmacological interventions that target outcomes that have been reported to be of importance to key stakeholders (ADHD symptoms, organisation skills, executive-global- and classroom-functioning, quality of life, self-esteem and conflict with teachers and peers). We plan to link promising individual intervention components to measured outcomes, and synthesise the evidence of effectiveness for each outcome.<h4>Methods</h4>A systematic search for studies published from the year 2000 that target the outcomes of interest in children and young people aged 3-12 will be conducted. Titles and abstracts will be screened using prioritisation software, and then full texts of potentially eligible studies will be screened. Systematic reviews, RCTs, non-randomised and case-series studies are eligible designs. Synthesis will vary by the type of evidence available, potentially including a review of reviews, meta-analysis and narrative synthesis. Heterogeneity of studies meta-analysed will be assessed, along with publication bias. Intervention mapping will be applied to understand potential behaviour change mechanisms for promising intervention components.<h4>Discussion</h4>This review will highlight interventions that appear to effectively ameliorate negative outcomes that are of importance for people with ADHD, parents, school staff and experts. Components of intervention design and features that are associated with effective change in the outcome will be delineated and used to inform the development of a 'toolkit' of non-pharmacological strategies that school staff can use to improve the primary school experience for children with ADHD.<h4>Trial registration</h4>PROSPERO number CRD42021233924.
, 2022 · doi:10.1186/s13643-022-01902-x