Most of the estimated half million children in Britain with the behavioural condition Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) receive no treatment at all.
Those that do, tend to be given powerful stimulant medication like Ritalin and Concerta. These drugs can help inattentive and unruly children focus and have been the first choice for doctors treating ADHD over the last decade. However, stimulant medication is not without its problems. Similar to amphetamine, it can cause insomnia and suppress the appetite, causing weight loss and stunt growth. There have even been reports of children becoming suicidal on them. DH STATEMENTShe was worried about the side effects even then, but with little other support on offer, she felt it was the only thing she could do to bring some normality to family life.
"I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study"
MTA co-author, Professor William Pelham, a world authority on ADHD, told Panorama:
"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."
That prompted me to get back in touch with Craig Buxton's mum, Sharon, to find out what has happened
since we last met.
It turns out things have gone from bad to worse for Craig, despite having remained on
medication for the best part of a decade.
He has no friends, has self-harmed, suffers night terrors,
is aggressive and - after assaulting three school teachers - prison looks like a very real prospect
if the family don't get the help they're crying out for.
The good news is that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence is currently revising the treatment
guidelines for ADHD. Chair of the working group, Dr Tim Kendall says:
"I hope that we will be able to make recommendations that will give people, based on the best evidence
we've got, a comprehensive approach to treatment which will advise about the use of parent training
programmes, the use of behavioural interventions.
"The important thing is that we have an approach which
doesn't focus just on one type of treatment."
Panorama: What Next for Craig? BBC One 8.30pm, Monday 12 November 2007
Read more about the findings
As a result of the MTA study, four reports were published in August, 2007 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).
You will need to register for the full reports but can read an abstract at the following urls:
3-Year Follow-up of the NIMH MTA Study
Delinquent Behavior and Emerging Substance Use in the MTA at 36 Months: Prevalence, Course, and Treatment Effects Secondary Evaluations of MTA 36-Month Outcomes: Propensity Score and Growth Mixture Model Analyses Effects of Stimulant Medication on Growth Rates Across 3 Years in the MTA Follow-up The National Institute for Mental Health website has information about the clinical trials and additional publications.
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