ERIC Number: EJ944778
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Aug
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0890-8567
EISSN: N/A
Effects of Stimulant Medication on Growth Rates across 3 Years in the MTA Follow-up
Swanson, James M.; Elliott, Glen R.; Greenhill, Laurence L.; Wigal, Timothy; Arnold, L. Eugene; Vitiello, Benedetto; Hechtman, Lily; Epstein, Jeffery N.; Pelham, William E.; Abikoff, Howard B.; Newcorn, Jeffrey H.; Molina, Brooke S. G.; Hinshaw, Stephen P.; Wells, Karen C.; Hoza, Betsy; Jensen, Peter S.; Gibbons, Robert D.; Hur, Kwan; Stehli, Annamarie; Davies, Mark; March, John S.; Conners, C. Keith; Caron, Mark; Volkow, Nora D.
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, v46 n8 p1015-1027 Aug 2007
Objective: To evaluate the hypothesis of stimulant medication effect on physical growth in the follow-up phase of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD. Method: Naturalistic subgroups were established based on patterns of treatment with stimulant medication at baseline, 14-, 24-, and 36-month assessments: not medicated (n = 65), newly medicated (n = 88), consistently medicated (n = 70), and inconsistently medicated (n = 147). Analysis of variance was used to evaluate effects of subgroup and assessment time on measures of relative size (z scores) obtained from growth norms. Results: The subgroup x assessment time interaction was significant for z height (p less than 0.005) and z weight (p less than 0.0001), due primarily to divergence of the newly medicated and the not medicated subgroups. These initially stimulant-naive subgroups had z scores significantly greater than 0 at baseline. The newly medicated subgroup showed decreases in relative size that reached asymptotes by the 36-month assessment, when this group showed average growth of 2.0 cm and 2.7 kg less than the not medicated subgroup, which showed slight increases in relative size. Conclusions: Stimulant-naive school-age children with Combined type attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were, as a group, larger than expected from norms before treatment but show stimulant-related decreases in growth rates after initiation of treatment, which appeared to reach asymptotes within 3 years without evidence of growth rebound. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)
Descriptors: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Stimulants, Norms, Statistical Analysis, Evaluation Methods, Drug Therapy, Children, Comparative Analysis, Outcomes of Treatment, Child Development, Interaction, Science Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A