Doctor Seeks Calm for Hyperactive Boys
Pediatrician Stan Handmaker says he may have figured out a way to calm hyperactive boys--by prodding them.
Ten boys diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are slated to receive acupressure--an Eastern medical technique using pressure points on the body--as part of a study about the effectiveness of alternative medicine.
“I’m not saying I am absolutely certain this is going to work. I’m saying that I think there’s something to this. I’ve tried it myself and it seemed to help me feel better,” says Handmaker, a University of New Mexico physician heading the study.
Another 10 boys will receive Ritalin, a drug prescribed to more than 2.4 million American children last year for hyperactivity, according to federal officials.
A final control group of 10 boys will receive massage therapy, to test whether the acupressure, or just the simple experience of lying down and being touched, is healing.
Handmaker plans to use the three-month pilot study as a basis for a grant proposal to the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine for a more in-depth study.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is estimated to occur in 3% to 5% of elementary school children. Unheard of 15 years ago, it has become America’s major childhood psychiatric disorder.
Researchers have ruled out many suspected causes, including poor parenting, fatty diets and brain damage. But they have yet to pinpoint the cause. Scientists are looking into everything from fetal exposure to lead to heredity.
“Give us 50 years and we’ll come up with a conclusive test,” says Dr. Keith Cheng, head of the ADHD clinic at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.
Meanwhile, the increased reliance on Ritalin worries some doctors and psychologists.
“Years back, you could go to a school and count the number of kids taking medication on one hand. Now they’re lining up in droves. It’s getting completely out of hand,” says Michael Valentine, a California psychologist.
Practitioners of acupressure and acupuncture believe energy, called qi, flows through pathways called meridians in the body and that problems such as hyperactivity are a result of energy being blocked in those pathways.
By stimulating certain points with finger pressure or needles, they believe they can clear out energy imbalances and prevent and treat problems. The methods have been used for more than 4,000 years in China and East Asia.
Handmaker, 57, studied medicine at Oxford University in England, Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He plans to apply rigorous clinical research standards to his study.
A nationwide study in 1990 showed that one in three Americans saw an alternative health-care practitioner that year, usually in conjunction with conventional medicine.
According to the NIH’s Office of Alternative Medicine, as many as half of all U.S. physicians refer patients for unconventional treatments.
Even so, Handmaker says, some of his colleagues have not been impressed with his study.
“They are rolling their eyes,” he said. “People think I’m crazy. People think I’m nuts.”
But Handmaker says the ridicule would be well worth the joy of finding a way to help children who suffer from ADHD.
