A more promising content option that has been explored for its impact on Twitter engagement and article views and downloads is the visual abstract.
This makes sense, most people when scrolling on any social media platform are less likely to read bulk text, or anything from links. Having visuals that can be interpreted without much brain power does a better job at engaging the viewer.
automated bots
This is becoming even more of an issue today with 57.4% of the internet being bots.
Although high rates of poor adherence/persistence to ADHD pharmacotherapy have been documented, there is a lack of research targeting the issue (Biederman et al., 2019). Evidence from the studies in our review shows that interventions are promising, at least in the short term. The most promising interventions involve psychoeducational, behavioural and technological interventions.
What the authors' concluded from the studies. The most promising forms of intervention revolve around psychoeducational, behavioral, and technological interventions. However, there needs to be more research targeting the issue so that better modes of intervention can be brought to light.
Other theoretical frameworks have been applied to medication adherence. For example, the Unified Theory of Behaviour Change (UTBC) suggests that targeting knowledge and skills through education may be an important strategy to improve adherence and persistence. For ADHD, increased knowledge and associated attitudes that using medication is safe and effective increases willingness to use medication (Bussing et al., 2012). However, while knowledge may increase willingness to try medication treatment, it is not clearly associated with long-term use (Corkum et al., 1999) - repeated educational support is likely necessary for any successful intervention.
This aligns with the topic that I am doing my research on. Being more educated about the medication one is taking can increase the likelihood they use it for treatment since they know what the medication does, how it will help them, how it may affect them longterm, and how to properly use the medication.
For ADHD, combining psychoeducational and behavioural strategies has been reported as necessary to affect change in attitude and behaviour, particularly for children with comorbid conditions such as ODD (Kamimura-Nishimura et al., 2019). To date, there has been no RCT using a combined approach. However, if behavioural strategies are to be used as interventions, potential challenges in terms of cost and time need to be considered and minimised. For a successful intervention to be implemented, it must be inexpensive and not burdensome to patients and families.
Combining psychoeducational and behavioral strategies are more likely to show beneficial affects in attitude and behavior. However, there are no RCTs that used the combined approach. The authors' emphasized the importance of taking time and cost into consideration if this strategy (or other behavioral strategies) were to be used as interventions, since it must be inexpensice and not burdensome to patients and families.
In our review, there is a general lack of consistency in the measurement of adherence and persistence to pharmacotherapy, as well as in the definitions used – this challenge has been documented by other researchers (Gajria et al., 2014; Aoki et al., 2021) and makes it difficult to compare the effectiveness of individual interventions.
A main reason as to why more studies need to be done in relation to this topic.
4.1. Synopsis of findings
The authors' found that psychoeducation showed improvements in adherence/persistence and five of them showing improvements in ADHD ratings. However, nearly all of the studies had issues with maintaining adherence rates long term. They concluded by saying that there needs to be more studies done addressing current limitations in order for more effective and sustainable interventions to be developed.
2.2. Inclusion/Exclusion criteria
The criteria used to determine what literature to include/exclude from the review. Since it is a systematic review the criteria is much more strict to make sure the literature aligns with the target topic.
An extensive search for published literature was conducted including the databases of Embase, Pubmed, PsychINFO, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science from January 1980 until January 2021.
Where the authors' got their literature for the review.
Although medication is safe and effective in treating ADHD, non-adherence to stimulant treatment is generally high (Adler and Nierenberg, 2010; Gajria et al., 2014; Pelsser et al., 2017), with an estimated 50% of patients choosing to discontinue pharmacotherapy (Rashid et al., 2018). Studies focused on adults only have also reported poor adherence (Olfson et al., 2007). A significant reduction in medication continuation can occur in adolescent years (Emilsson et al., 2017; Charach and Fernandez, 2013). Adolescents have been reported to regard medications for ADHD less favourably than their parents/guardians (Bussing et al., 2012).
This is specifically why I chose my topic. The stigma surrounding ADHD medication can make it hard for adults with ADHD or parents/guardians of children with ADHD to choose medication as a form of treatment. This is also a personal experience to me since I was taken off of medication when I was younger since my parents weren't education enough on the medication I was taking.
ADHD can result in negative consequences such as social and family life problems, low educational attainment/learning disabilities, low self-esteem, impaired emotional development, occupational difficulties and relationship issues (Dias et al., 2013).
This isn't the main topic in the review, but these consequences of ADHD are another reason why education about disorders is so important. Especially since ADHD is often described as a "lack of discipline" or "laziness" by those who aren't educated on the disorder. This has lead to a pretty "harsh" stigma surrounding ADHD, which includes the medication involved in treatment.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental behavioural disorder in childhood and adolescence. The disorder tends to occur more in boys than girls (Charach et al., 2011), and is also known to persist into adulthood (Adler and Cohen, 2004; Charach et al., 2011; Pelsser et al., 2017; Elliott et al., 2020).
Introducing what ADHD is so the audience can have a better idea as to why this review is important. Also, recent studies suggest that it's harder to diagnose women/girls with ADHD since they are more likely to have the inattentive type. Which is why men/boys are often diagnosed more often since they are more likely to have the hyperactive type. However, this is not always the case since ADHD is a spectrum disorder, so anyone can have any type.
We believe future interventions should involve combinations of strategies, have a theoretical framework and target the most common reasons for non-adherence. Interventions should also be integratable into routine care and include patient input to maximise sustainability.
The authors' idea based on the studies reviewed. Going for a combined approach that can be integrated into a daily routine makes sense since everyone and every family structure is different. So having interventions that can be integrated into many different routines can potentially lead to higher adherence rates.
An extensive search was conducted from January 1980 until January 2021. Thirteen studies were identified involving interventions based on psychoeducation, behavioural therapy, combined psychoeducation/behavioural therapy, technology-based interventions, written informed consent and a nursing support line.
Over 41 years they found 13 studies that covered a lot of different psychoeducation methods. Since the problem they are looking into has limited research it makes sense why it took 41 years to find enough studies to do the review.
systematic review
This is a systematic review, which means it will be structured and focused around on specific topic.
Authors’ intent usually matters in how useful their information can be to your research project,
Understanding the intent of the author will make it easier to determine if their source will be helpful to you and your research. If their intent doesn't fit the criteria needed to suit your research, then finding a source that does will be better for you.
One of the handiest and thus most-often-used categorizations of sources is by the expertise of their intended audiences. In this categorization, sources are either meant for everybody (popular sources), for only a college-educated or otherwise well-prepared audience (substantive popular sources), for professionals in an occupation (professional sources), or for scholars, students, and other people who want a deep understanding of a subject (scholarly sources).
It's important to understand the audience you are writing for when choosing your sources. Each source has an intended purpose with a specific audience in mind, so it's important to know who you are writing for so you don't pick the wrong sources.