Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the comparative recovery rates of children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and have received (a) drug interventions, (b) psychological treatment and (c) no treatment.

Comparative recovery rates for the different interventions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are not collected nationally. Recovery data will be included in the children and adolescent mental health services Minimum Data Set which is due to flow to the Health and Social Care Information Centre from January 2016.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has previously reviewed the results of therapies in detail (Clinical Practice Guideline No. 72), with the conclusion that both drug interventions and psychological interventions carry benefit over no treatment, and should be used according to individual need. There has been recent research on the value of the two approaches; and NICE is at present reviewing the research and how to update its recommendations.