Through an imperative investigative follow-up study recently completed after a period of three years it has been found that most of the children while being treated in a variety of ways for a serious consideration, the disease of Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD has shown notable signs of improvement. It is to be noted that the entire study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health or NIMH, a distinguished component of the National Institutes of Health or the NIH. However, the report has also portrayed at the same time that the elevated risk for behavioral problems that includes also the delinquency and substance use remains higher than normal.

From the discourses with Dr. Peter Jensen, M.D., of the Columbia University and his colleagues in charge of the study group it has been learnt that the preliminary advantages of the solitary medication management or in combination with behavioral management over purely behavioral or routine community care gradually diminished in the subsequent years with the ending of the stipulated 4 months of controlled treatment. But according to the group of researchers in their own words, "it would be incorrect to conclude from these results that treatment makes no difference or is not worth pursuing."   Speaking on the occasion Dr. Jensen said, "We were struck by the remarkable improvement in symptoms and functioning across all treatment groups." He also added, "Our results suggest that medication can make a long-term difference for some children if it's continued with optimal intensity, and not started or added too late in a child's clinical course."

After the completion of the specific three years, 45-71 percent of the youth in the original treatment groups were found with the adoption of medication. Although it has been also noticed that the ongoing medication treatment was no longer associated with better outcomes by the third year.

In this respect it was published in the year 1999 that as part of the follow-up study, a multi-site research team evaluated, 485 children belonging to the age group 10-13 from the original MTA or Multimodal Treatment Study being the first major randomized trial comparing different treatments for ADHD. According to that study it was found that rigorous medication management alone or in combination with behavioral therapy produced better outcomes than just behavioral therapy or usual community care. The ratings found from families and teachers approved the combination treatment, in turn allowing for somewhat lower medication doses. In addition, the cautious supervision of medication by MTA physicians produced better outcomes than the mode of medication that was provided by the means of usual community care sources. It was after the completion of the assigned treatments for 14 months at stretch the concerned families were permitted to decide freely the necessary treatment in their surrounding environment.