Study supports stimulants for hyperactive children

Reuters

CHICAGO Swedish researchers defended the longterm use of stimulants in
children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on Sunday,
saying positive effects lasted for more than a year.

Amphetamines helped calm the children and also helped them score higher on
IQ tests, they reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry, issued by
the American Medical Association.

Stimulants have been used to treat ADHD, also known more simply as
Attention Deficit Disorder, for 60 years but previous studies have been
limited to showing their effectiveness only in the short run.

The most commonly used drug is methylphenidate, sold as Ritalin by Novartis
and under generic formulations by several other companies.

Christopher Gillberg and colleagues at the University of Goteborg studied
62 children between the ages of 6 and 11 who showed symptoms of
hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder. Some were treated with
amphetamines while others in the group received placebos.

``The mean change in IQ from zero to 15 months was plus 4.5 for the group
treated with amphetamines for nine months or more, and plus 0.7 in the
group receiving placebo for six months or more,'' the study said.

The authors said the study showed that longterm amphetamine use shows
promising results for both home and school settings. However, they said
more research is needed.

Many of the children showed poor appetite after six months not
surprising, as amphetamines were once used as appetite suppressants.

Howard Morris, president of the National Attention Deficit Disorder
Association, said there had been some controversy over the use of
amphetamines in children but only in that there were fears they were
being prescribed to children who did not have the disorder.

``Often in a matter of a short office visit the patient is walking out of
there with a prescription for ritalin or some other psychostimulants,'' he
said.

He said the symptoms are often similar to symptoms for depression,
malnutrition or stress. ``We support the idea that medication is not a
silver bullet to address ADD,'' he added.

A second study in the same journal looked at troublesome boys who do not
have ADHD and found more inhibited boys were more likely to become
delinquents.

Margaret Kerr and colleagues at the University of Montreal studied 778 boys
from the region. ``Disruptivewithdrawn boys are likely to become
delinquentdepressed,'' they wrote. ``They are, in fact, 3.21 times more at
risk.''

Posted at 12:02 a.m. PDT Monday, September 15, 1997

| Mercury Center Home | Index | News Library | Feedback | _19967
Mercury Center. The information you receive online from Mercury
Center is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The
copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting,
or repurposing of any copyrightprotected material.