STUDY COUNTERS WORRY THAT TREATMENT OF
HYPERACTIVITY LEADS TO DRUG ABUSE

CHICAGO - Hyperactive boys who were treated with stimulants such
as Ritalin were one-third as likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs
as teen-agers than similar boys who had not been treated, a new study
found.

Some experts not involved in the study said it was flawed and too
small to reach meaningful conclusions.

But authors of the study -- which involved 212 boys, including 75 with
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD -- said the findings
should help allay concerns that giving children potentially addictive
drugs such as Ritalin may promote harmful habits later.

An estimated 3 million school-age children have ADHD, and as many as
half may be taking Ritalin or other stimulants, past research indicates.

"There has been a mythology that the use of these medications could
`prime' children to become addicts in the future or could develop `a
culture of drug taking,"' said Dr. Joseph Biederman of Massachusetts
General Hospital, lead author of the study published in the August
issue of Pediatrics.

"We believe that children with ADHD who are medically treated will
have fewer problems resulting from their disorder and more successful
lives, probably giving them fewer reasons to experiment with substance
abuse," he added.

Ritalin acts on dopamine, a brain chemical that helps regulate
thinking. Ritalin is believed to calm hyperactivity by helping
children's brains disregard distracting stimuli, such as classroom
noise, so they can focus on learning.

The subjects for the research were part of a previous study of
families with an ADHD child and families with no ADHD children. The
children and their mothers were interviewed on three occasions -- when
they entered the study, one year later and four years after enrollment.

The authors studied 56 ADHD patients who were on medication, 19 ADHD
patients not on medication and 137 patients without the disorder.

At the study's end, 75 percent of the unmedicated ADHD subjects had
substance abuse disorders, compared with 25 percent of the medicated
subjects. Abused substances included alcohol, marijuana,
hallucinogens, cocaine and other stimulants. Eighteen percent of the
non-ADHD subjects were substance abusers.

A critic of the study, psychologist Nadine M. Lambert of the
University of California at Berkeley, said it was too small to show
significant differences in rates of drug abuse.

Her own research involving more than 200 ADHD subjects tracked for
more than 20 years shows that those who took stimulant medication were
more likely to be cocaine and tobacco abusers as adults than
non-medicated subjects, she said.

Lambert said she is not opposed to treating ADHD youngsters with
stimulants because the benefits have been shown clearly, but she
believes there are risks and they should be acknowledged.