This was a review that pooled results from 54 randomized trials, drawn from 2,904 records that were screened. The people studied were children and teenagers aged 3 to 18 who had ADHD or met validated symptom cutoffs. It looked at six kinds of non-drug treatment: restricted elimination diets, cutting out artificial food colors, free fatty acid supplements, cognitive training, neurofeedback, and behavioral treatments.
When the researchers used ratings from people closest to the treatment, who often knew which children got it, every treatment looked helpful. The diet treatments showed small to moderate effects (standardized mean differences of 0.21 to 0.48), and the psychological treatments showed somewhat larger ones (0.40 to 0.64).
The picture changed when the ratings came from assessors who probably did not know who had been treated. Only two effects held up: free fatty acid supplements (standardized mean difference of 0.16) and cutting out artificial food colors (0.42). The other treatments shrank to levels that were no longer significant.
The authors noted that whether the free fatty acid effect matters in daily life is still unclear, and that the food color effect often came from children picked because they were sensitive to foods. Any supplement use was part of a trial, not a recommendation. Talk to a clinician about your own situation.
Source: Sonuga-Barke E, Brandeis D, Cortese S, et al.. Nonpharmacological Interventions for ADHD: Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Randomized Controlled Trials of Dietary and Psychological Treatments. American Journal of Psychiatry (2013). doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12070991