The Journal of Medical Humanities~ VoL 17, No. 1, 1996 Perceptions of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Its Treatment Among Children and Adolescents H. Russell Searight, Ph.D. 1,2 Little is known about how children and adolescents conceptualize psychiatric disorders and psychiatric treatment. In the current study, children and adolescents diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were interviewed about their understanding of ADHD and the medication used to treat their disorder. The participants were all taking Ritalin and ranged in age from 5 to 16 years. With increasing age, children improved in their ability to name their condition and the medication. Latency-aged children often did not perceive Ritalin as helpful while adolescents recognized some value in taking medication. Some of the adolescents were also able to describe medication side effects. The implications of these findings for patient education are discussed. INTRODUCTION There has been increased attention in the health care field to the role of patients' health care beliefs as an integral part of the physician-pa- tient encounter (1, 2). A growing issue in medical care is the lack of patient compliance with dietary recommendations, medication regimens, and fol- low-up visits with physicians (3). While compliance for pediatric patients is usually seen as controlled by parents, recent investigations into children's An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Second International Congress of the Child -- Montreal Quebec, Canada, October 9, 1992. 1Deaconess Family Medicine and Departments of Psychology and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University. 2Address correspondence to H. Russell Seafight, .Ph.D., Deaconess Hospital, Department of Family Medicine, 6150 Oakland Avenue. 51 9 1996HumanSdencesPress, Inc.