ADHD treatment deemed woeful as cure

Bonnie: Note that 77% of the participants in the following Pediatrics study received stimulant treatment as children. However, you will find that information nowhere in the media coverage. Maybe that's because the pharmaceutical company that funded the study did not want that information getting out?

The first large, population-based study to follow children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder into adulthood shows that ADHD often doesn't go away and that children with ADHD are more likely to have other psychiatric disorders as adults. They also appear more likely to commit suicide and to be incarcerated as adults.

Only 37.5 percent of the children contacted as adults were free of worrisome outcomes. The study is unique because it followed a large group of ADHD patients from childhood to adulthood.  At follow-up, the researchers found: 

• 29 percent of children with ADHD still had ADHD as adults. 
• 57 percent of children with ADHD had at least one other psychiatric disorder as adults, as compared with 35 percent of those studied who didn't have childhood ADHD. The most common were substance abuse/dependence, antisocial personality disorder, hypomanic episodes, generalized anxiety and major depression.
• Of the children who still had ADHD as adults, 81 percent had at least one other psychiatric disorder, as compared with 47 percent of those who no longer had ADHD and 35 percent of those without childhood ADHD.
• Ten adults who had childhood ADHD (2.7 percent) were incarcerated when the study started.

Steve: Here is the conclusion quoted directly from study "These findings have important implications for the effectiveness of care provided to children with ADHD and the system of care to meet the needs of individuals with ADHD across the lifespan. It is concerning that only a minority of children with ADHD reaches adulthood without suffering serious adverse outcomes, suggesting that the care of childhood ADHD is far from optimal. Our results also indicate that clinicians, insurers, and health care systems must be prepared to provide appropriate care for adults with ADHD."