Depending on how old the child is when diagnosed with ADHD, the guidelines for treatment would differ. If we look at the UK's NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), they break up their guidelines on ADHD management into a few parts. For the most of it, parent-training (e.g. behavioural management strategies) is considered primary to medication when managing ADHD in children (https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng87/chapter/Recommendations#managing-adhd).


A similar stance is adopted by the World Health Organisation on managing ADHD (https://www.who.int/mental_health/mhgap/evidence/child/q7/en/).

Based on these guidelines, medication is usually recommended as an \"if challenges persists despite other strategies\" approach, and should not be viewed as the magic pill for ADHD despite some evidence of it's efficacy.