Current ADHD medications provide patients, clinicians with ‘exciting’ options

Tim Wilens, MD, chief of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, spoke about the “exciting area” of recent findings on ADHD across patient lifespan in a video interview.

Recent studies of note focused on longer-term outcomes of treated and untreated children with ADHD, according to Wilens.

“We know the disorder has a lot of impairment and comorbidities associated with it,” Wilens said. “In general, what we’re finding are improvements in multiple comorbidities over time.”

Wilens noted observed reductions of many of the sequelae of ADHD in treated children, including substance use disorders. Further, a multitude of stimulant preparations are now available for patients that provide a range of release methods and durations of action.

Nonstimulant medications are currently being tested as both monotherapy and combination therapy with stimulant medications, and both have demonstrated improvements in ADHD symptoms as well as associated problems such as executive functioning, Wilens said.

“There are also a number of new medications in development both from the non-stimulant and the stimulant family of medications, making it an exciting time to be taking care of children, adolescents and adults with ADHD,” he said. – by Joe Gramigna & Savannah Demko

Disclosures: Wilens reports ties to industry related to ADHD medication as well as funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.