Psychotherapy of adults with attention-deficit disorder.

The multimodal treatment of adults with attention-deficit disorder (ADD) is described as consisting of a sequence of overlapping therapeutic measures. The initial objective is symptom amelioration through adequate pharmacotherapy. Once this has been accomplished, a period of psychoeducational therapy is recommended to teach the individual to live successfully with a chronic disorder. These two aspects of treatment may suffice for some ADD adults, but many others may require an additional course of psychotherapy to deal with dysfunctional personality characteristics resulting from having grown up with ADD. Among these are modes of defenses against painful affects, resistances to treatment, and inaccurate estimations and expectations of the self and others.