Comparing the Effectiveness of Risperidone with Aripiprazole as a Combination Therapy in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Abstract Background: This study intends to compare the effectiveness of Risperidone with Aripiprazole as a combination therapy in Attention-deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) children with oppositional defiant disorder, treated with Methylphenidate. Methods: This is a double-blind clinical experiment. The sample size was determined as 60 (40 for the intervention group and 20 for the control group) by random sampling. The data collecting instrument was Parent's ADHD Rating Scale, Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S), demographic information checklist, and drug's side-effects checklist for this study. Repeated measurement multivariate analysis was used as a statistical method to compare the quantitative variables in both intervention and control groups using SPSS18 software. Results: The results of this study indicated that there is a substantial difference between scores in ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) groups after 8 weeks (F=2.34, p>0.03). Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, Aripiprazole in combination with Methylphenidate have a higher effect on reducing ADHD and ODD symptom.Trial registration: IRCT20160530028182N5; Registered 6 February 2018, https://en.irct.ir/trial/22916