Drugs for ADHD 'not the answer'

Treating children who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with drugs is not effective in the long-term, research has shown. A US study says drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta work no better than therapy after three years of treatment. The findings also suggested long-term use of the drugs could stunt children's growth and create an enlarged heart. The benefits had previously been exaggerated.

The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health has been monitoring the treatment of 600 children across the US since the 1990s. The report's co-author, Professor William Pelham of the University of Buffalo, said: "I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study. "We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes. That didn't happen to be the case. There's no indication that medication's better than nothing in the long run." Prof Pelham said there were "no beneficial effects" of medication and the impact was seemingly negative instead. "The children had a substantial decrease in their rate of growth so they weren't growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and in terms of their weight," he said.

Bonnie - this piece came from BBC News via their version of "Frontline." Why have we not heard anything about this in the US media? This is a monster story covering a monster issue.

I have been staunchly against the widespread prescribing of ADHD medications. Now that the long-term results are coming in, it does'nt look pretty. This is yet another example of why long-term studies need to be done on medications before approval, especially when it affects our children.

My book, Our Children's Health and Kenneth Bock's Healing the New Childhood Epidemics list some alternatives to medication.