No Long-term Benefits Of Adhd Drugs

Pure Facts December 2007 /January 2008

Pure Facts December 2007 /January 2008

Treating children with drugs does not work in the long term and can stunt growth and lead to other unwanted side effects.

The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD began in 1990 and followed the treatment of 600 children. The study looked at 4 options: 1. Drugs alone, 2. Behavioral treatment, 3. Drugs + behavior treatment, 4. No special treatments. (Other treatments were not considered, such as the removal of additives and salicylates, supplementation with essential fatty acids, vitamins or other nutrients, vision therapy, sensory integration therapy, food or environmental allergies, heavy metal exposure.)

In 1999, the researchers conducting the study reported that after one year medicine was more effective than behavioral interventions; as a result, sales of ADHD drugs increased. The initial findings, reported in December of 1999, said that a combination of medication plus behavior modification and medication alone were more effective than just behavioral treatment alone.

But the data now indicates that the benefits of drugs for these children is short-lived; after 3 years of treatment, the ADHD drugs did not work better than behavioral therapy. What's more, the research confirms that drugs can stunt a child's growth.

Study co-author, Professor William Pelham of the University of Buffalo, says, "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.

"The children [taking the medicine] weren't growing as much as other kids, both in terms of their height and in terms of their weight." He concluded, "In the short run [medication] will help the child behave better; in the long run it won't. And that information should be made very clear to parents."

Professor Pelham now suggests that a combination of behavioral therapy and Omega-3 EFAs should be the first steps to help a child with ADHD.

by: Jane Hersey

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