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Reported April 8, 2004
ADHD Treatment: Are Drugs Working? (Ivanhoe Newswire) --
Stimulant medications benefit children with ADHD, but the
benefits may not last and could have side effects. Two
current studies focus on this issue.
One study shows drugs for ADHD are effective but may cause
mild growth suppression in children. The second study shows
taking stimulants has beneficial effects even after families
pursue other treatments. However, that study also shows some
children lose the initial benefits after two years.
The research on ADHD is limited and has not looked at long-
term outcomes in groups. These two studies from the National
Institute of Mental Health Multimodal Treatment Study of
ADHD focus on follow-up data from patients after two years.
The first study looked at overall symptoms and side effects
on growth. The participants were part of four groups. One
group took medication the entire two years, and another
group did not take any medication at all. Another group took
medications for 14 months and then went off it for 10 months
while a fourth group did the exact opposite.
Researchers found stopping medication after 14 months
resulted in the biggest deterioration. The group on no
medication showed modest deterioration. The group that
started medication showed the most improvement in symptoms.
Furthermore, the group that was on medication the entire
time had a reduced height gain compared with the group never
on medication.
In the second study, researchers looked at benefits seen
after 10 months on a stimulant to see if these benefits were
still present 14 months later. Researchers report children
who were initially on the drug maintained some benefits even
if they went off the drug. However, some children lost some
of the initial benefits over time.