Question

1.How would you conduct an experiment to determine the effectiveness of a new ADHD medication?

Answer 1

ADHD medicines are used to treat or control 'Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)'. Children are observed attentively after starting their medication. A correct dose is mandatory for the treatment of ADHD. These medicines have some side effects which gradually reduce after some time. A regular consultation is required with the doctor after starting new ADHD medication. The results of the medication can not be measured using several techniques like blood tests, thyroid taste etc' as we find out in case of diabetes or kidney problems where improvements can be seen with the help of the several reports. This is not possible in the case of ADHD medication. Improvements can be noticed by observing their behaviour with the help of family and friends. Doctors observe their behaviour after certain time intervals. So it is difficult to find out that any new ADHD medicine is effectively working or not. Doctors and therapists have found a method to know the result of such medication known as scientific method. They have prepared several rating scales, questionnaires, observation sheets to observe the result of medication and changes in patients' behaviour from time to time. So we are dependent on scientific methods to find out the result of ADHD medication.

According to these methods, we are dependent on scientific researches to find out a result of a new medication. The researchers use many steps in their experiment to find out the results. The steps of the experiment are as the following-

• First of all we need to prepare a hypothesis. After creating the hypothesis a proper procedure will be planned to carry the experiment. The researcher needs to plan the steps of the experiment like the quantity of the medicines, observation of children by their parents or doctors etc. The evaluation method will also be decided whether it would be done with the help different reports, rating scales etc.
• After preparing and planning the hypothesis, the next is the selection of the subjects to conduct the experiment. This is quite difficult to find out the patients at larger number. The number of the participants depend upon the requirement of the research question. Here two groups of children will be compared- First group, which is getting the treatment of ADHD and second group, that is not getting any treatment. Here the experimenter needs to control the number of variables but not those variables which are related to the study.
• Next stage is for measuring the result properly, it could be done that half of the subjects get their regular medicines while other half are not getting the same medicines. But they will not be informed about it. Sometimes this technique work but not always because people generally come to know that they are not getting the same medicines prescribed for their disease. So this creates problem in conducting the research.
• As we know that getting results for ADHD medication is not as easy as in other diseases because they are dependent on the behaviour changes of the subjects. But there are other means of finding results like rating scales, observation sheets etc. We should in our experiment which mean of result we will use. This method should be valid and reliable. Because if your result is valid than it can be used in future experiments and in the effective treatment of ADHD by medical community.