Eugenia Chan, MD, MPH: Treating ADHD During a Pandemic

It is important to continuously update clinical practice guidelines for diseases like attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

As more and more evidence-based research becomes available, guidelines get updates with the most recent data.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Eugenia Chan, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, spoke about the importance of updating clinical practice guidelines for ADHD.

During the annual American Academy of Pediatrics 2021 virtual meeting, Chan discussed some new and update clinical practice guidelines and how they will impact care of this patient population.

But it’s also important to realize clinical practice guidelines will not generally cover every patient with a given disease and there are circumstances that occur outside of the purview of the guidelines.

“It’s important for people to recognize that guidelines aren’t meant to cover 100% of patients,” Chan said. “If they applied to maybe 75% that’s great and that totally depends on how much evidence is out there to support a more detailed guide to treatment.”

Chan also discussed how difficult the pandemic has been for this patient population, particularly those who need routine.

“I think there is no question that the pandemic accelerated mental health crises among children and their parents as well,” Chan said.