No, Says a New Study of ADD Patients
C H I C A G O, Aug. 3 Hyperactive boys treated with drugs such as
Ritalin were much less likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs as teen-agers than similar
boys who had not been treated, researchers say.
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.
No Prime Directive?
“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. It is published in the August issue of Pediatrics’ “electronic
pages,” an Internet extension of the journal published by the American Academy 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 said.
Ritalin acts on dopamine, a brain chemical that helps regulate
thinking. It is believed to calm hyperactivity by helping children’s brains disregard
distracting stimuli, such as classroom noise, so they can focus on learning.
Part of Previous Study
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 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.
(AP)
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