Preschool Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Telephone Medication Management at Developmental-Behavioral...

To understand developmental-behavioral pediatricians' (DBPs') use of clinic versus telephone encounters for preschool attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication management. Understanding use of telephone encounters for pharmacologic management of ADHD in preschoolers may inform care for children with ADHD.

DBP investigators within Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Research Network abstracted data from medical records of 503 children aged younger than 72 months treated for ADHD with medication by a DBP clinician between January 1, 2013, and July 1, 2017, across 7 sites. We abstracted data about medication treatment episodes (defined as start and end/change of a specific type, dose, and frequency of ADHD medication) and encounter type (clinic vs telephone). We present descriptive statistics related to encounter types and χ2 analyses to compare frequencies across reasons for the end of treatment episode and across sites.

The study included 503 participants with a total of 1734 treatment episodes. The initial medication was started via a clinic encounter 85.9% of the time and via telephone encounters 14.1% of the time. When evaluating reasons for end of treatment episode, decreases in dose/frequency of medication were less common for clinic versus telephone encounters (27% vs 73%; p < 0.001) and adding an additional medication was more common at clinic versus telephone encounters (64% vs 36% p < 0.001). Sites varied significantly in frequency of telephone encounters, ranging from 16.9% to 68.9% (mean 45.7%).

Telephone encounters were used for pharmacologic management of ADHD in preschoolers to varying degrees across 7 DBP sites. These findings suggest that telephone management serves an important role in ADHD care.