Study of stimulant therapy raises concerns
By Bruce Bower
The first long-term effort to track stimulant therapy in a large population of children has generated disturbing results. In particular, the North Carolina-based study finds that most 9-to-16-year-olds receiving Ritalin or other stimulants don’t exhibit attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the only condition for which such drugs are approved.
More encouraging, about 3 of 4 kids who were diagnosed with ADHD on the basis of parents’ behavioral reports received stimulants, says a team led by psychiatric epidemiologist Adrian Angold of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Youngsters with ADHD often benefit from these medications, especially if also given behavioral training (SN: 12/18&25/99, p. 388: https://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/12_18_99/fob1.htm). Still, more than half of all stimulant users in the study fell short of even a relaxed definition of ADHD.