Understanding the Family’s Experience with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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Understanding the family’s experience with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will be the topic of The Third Annual Armour Family Therapy Lecture Series at Mercer University School of Medicine. This year’s event takes place on Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 7:30 p.m., in the School of Medicine Auditorium, 1550 College Street, Macon.

It is open to the public, free of charge.

Guest lecturers Sandra Volgy Everett, Ph.D., and Craig A. Everett, Ph.D., will discuss diagnosing and tracking ADHD symptoms and how ADHD affects the parent, child, sibling and marital interactions within a family.

Co-directors of the Arizona Institute for Family Therapy in Tucson, Ariz., the Everetts have been in practice more than 25 years. They are the authors of several books, including Family Therapy for ADHD, Treating Children, Adolescents, and Adults; Healthy Divorce and Short Term Family Therapy with Borderline Patients.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the more prevalent mental disorders suffered by children in the United States. According to the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, ADHD afflicts between three and five percent of school-age children in any six-month period.

“ADHD affects the family socially and in their home environment” said Melton Strozier, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Mercer and a family therapist at Mercer Health Systems. “It is not unusual for parents to have to curtail social activities, especially during the phase before a diagnosis has been made.”