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ADHD medication linked with improved academic achievement
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder who received prescription medications had higher standardized mathematics and reading test scores compared with unmedicated peers.
“This is the first large-scale evidence that ADHD medication might really help kids with what they’re actually in school for, which is to learn to read and do math better,” Stephen P. Hinshaw, PhD, professor and chair of the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, told Infectious Diseases in Children.
Although data from previous studies indicated that prescription medications improved behavior in 80% of children with ADHD compared with the 10% to 15% who received placebo, exactly how these behavior changes translated into academic achievement was unclear until now.
Hinshaw and colleagues analyzed data from 594 elementary school children with ADHD collected by the Department of Education during the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study — a nationally representative cohort of almost 20,000 children who entered kindergarten during the 1998-1999 school year, with parent interviews and standardized test scores collected during five survey waves.
Children who were administered ADHD medication at any time during the study scored an average of 2.9 points higher on standardized math tests than those who were not, an achievement comparable to that typically gained during one-fifth of a school year.
A similar trend was noted in reading scores, with children who were administered medication during at least two of the five survey waves scoring an average of 5.4 points higher than unmedicated children, an improvement comparable to that typically gained during one-third of a school year.
Richard M. Scheffler, PhD, distinguished professor of health economics and public policy at the school of public health and Goldman School of Public Policy, also at the university, explained that even in light of these positive findings clinicians should still take an individualized approach to managing ADHD. “Treating a child with ADHD is really a team sport. It takes the medication, the physician, the family and teachers. You really need all of those players involved to help the child along in school,” he said in an interview. Scheffler emphasized that physicians should weigh the benefits and adverse events to make the best possible treatment choices for each individual child.
Whether the academic gains demonstrated in this study persist beyond elementary school is still to be determined. ADHD medication use tends to drop off in middle and secondary school, according to Hinshaw. “When learning has gotten to be much more independent and when there is really a premium placed on organizational skills and high-level cognitive skills — this is the time when kids begin to resist medication,” he said.
Hinshaw and Scheffler plan to conduct follow-up studies in the future to address these questions as more cohort data become available. – by Nicole Blazek
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