Efficacy of Non-pharmacological Treatments on Emotional Symptoms of Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Meta-Analysis

Background: The present meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy of various non-pharmacological interventions on comorbid emotional symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation (ED) in children and adults with ADHD. Method: Forty-four randomized controlled trials (23 studies with ADHD children and 21 studies with ADHD adults) were included. Risk of bias, heterogeneity assessment, and subgroup analyses were conducted. Results: We found that therapies targeting the relationship between children and others (i.e., parent-training [on ED and depression] and social skills training [on ED]) were efficacious in the treatment of emotional symptoms in children with ADHD at post-intervention. As for adults with ADHD, cognitive behavioral therapy was found to be effective for the improvement of emotional symptoms at both post-intervention and follow-up. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that the efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions varies substantially across children and adults with ADHD. These results provide important implications for the selection of non-pharmacological interventions for children with ADHD.