Positive Health Outcomes for a Child Diagnosed with ADHD Following Chiropractic

The Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health Chiropractic published the results of a case study on March 1, 2024, documenting the positive health outcomes from chiropractic care for a child who had been diagnosed with ADHD. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control describes Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on their website by stating, “ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. It is usually first diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood. Children with ADHD may have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors (may act without thinking about what the result will be), or be overly active.”

The author of this study begins by pointing out how common this issue has become. “There has been an astounding increase in certain childhood mental health diagnoses in society today. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is just one of the many increasing mental health conditions in children, which has shown increased prevalence rates from an estimated 6% in 1997 to 10% in 2017. Upwards of 15% of US children are utilizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.”

Chiropractic care is becoming a more common form of what is called complementary and alternative care for children with ADHD. The author reports that “…statistics have shown that more than 30 million children visit chiropractors every year. Approximately 7-12% of children with ADHD are utilizing complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) options for care.”

In this case, an 11-year-old boy with a diagnosis of ADHD was brought to the chiropractor. The boy’s history showed that he was born 9 weeks premature. By elementary school, the boy had difficulties with reading and reading comprehension. His parents had been utilizing various exercises and home therapies to help their son with his ADHD issues. They also started to have their son play golf with his father. Due to his issues, the boy had difficulties and was unable to perform several of these exercises.

A chiropractic evaluation was performed, and specific forms of chiropractic adjustments were started. The study reports that after the first adjustment, the boy was able to do the home exercises better than previously, allowing an increase in his home exercise routine. By the boy’s 8th chiropractic visit, the boy was testing better on all levels and reported that his golf game had also improved. As chiropractic care continued, the study reports that the boy continued to show improvement in his level of frustration and all the objective testing performed for ADHD.

This study adds to the growing body of evidence in the form of case studies showing chiropractic helping individual children who have been diagnosed with ADHD. It should be noted that chiropractors do not claim to treat ADHD, but through improvement in nerve system function, many of the issues created by ADHD can be improved.