Objectives: To examine whether adding schema therapy strategies to the conventional parent behavioral program prevents symptom relapse in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Method: The intervention was designed as an adaptive pragmatic control trial. The parent behavioral training and schema-enhanced parent behavior therapy (SPBT) protocols were delivered to the control group (40 parents of 23 children) and experimental group (97 parents of 54 children), respectively. Participants were assessed at baseline, mid-treatment, and termination. Parents and teachers indicated the severity of ADHD and comorbid symptoms through their responses to standardized questionnaires designed for this purpose.
Results: A nested growth curve analysis demonstrated that participants in the schema-enhanced intervention group had a lower risk of symptom relapse than the control group.
Conclusion: Participation in the SPBT program significantly reduced relapse rates by the end of the intervention. Future research may determine the long-term effects of the treatment.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02824796.
Keywords: ADHD; aggressive behavior; attachment; parent behavioral training; schema therapy.