A long-term study on the effects of the most widely prescribed ADHD drugs has shown that the benefits of taking such medication falls off after 2-3 years (depending), but that kids on the medications for the eight years of the study are, on average, an inch shorter and six pounds lighter than the kids who have never taken such drugs.
Earlier reports from the study that found a significant improvement in ADHD symptoms in medicated kids led to a boom in prescriptions for those medications, from about 28.3 million in 2004 to 39.5 million last year. Today, approximately 5% of the population is on a drug prescribed for ADHD.
The study used controls by randomly assigning a "therapy" protocol to four different groups of kids diagnosed with ADHD. (One group got nothing in particular). In the early months of the study those receiving the drugs did better than those on behavioral therapy alone, but after those early results were publicized, the difference between the groups diminished and eventually the behavioral therapy group and the medication groups were indistinguishable...except by height and weight.
The groups of kids taking the drugs over time are significantly shorter than kids who never took the drugs, leading to speculation that the drugs stunt growth.
The members of the research team are more or less in agreement on these mixed results with the exception of one doctor who insists the findings of the rest of the team are "silly." Notably that team member--along with most of the researchers, in fact--have significant funding and other conflicts of interest from the pharmaceuticals industry.
The take-away that most experts consulted seemed to agree on is that ADHD medications can be helpful in the short-term, while parents, teachers and therapists help affected kids cope in behavioral ways with their challenges. Unfortunately, however, another study found that when parents are given drug treatments for kids with ADHD and told to seek additional behavioral therapies, only 25% of them do so. Meanwhile, 95% of parents not given drug prescriptions do seek out such treatment. While the no-drug parents (and kids) may have a harder time in the short-term, it sounds like they will do better over time--assuming they get those non-medication coping skills mastered.
image: adhd.co.nz
