Reducing the risk of anxiety for ADHD children | Mental Health Update

ADHD children, getting beyond anxiety thru the use of psychostimulants

A new review of studies involving nearly 3,000 children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) concludes that, although anxiety has been reported as a side-effect of stimulant medication, psychostimulant treatment for ADHD significantly reduces the risk of anxiety.

Thus, patient reports of new-onset or worsening anxiety with the use of psychostimulants are not likely due to the medication and should not necessarily preclude stimulant use in ADHD, according to the authors of the study published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

Catherine Coughlin, Michael Bloch, MD, and coauthors from Yale University, New Haven, CT and University of Saõ Paulo School of Medicine, Brazil, emphasize the importance of managing anxiety in children with ADHD, as it can affect how they respond to treatment.

In the article "Meta-Analysis: Reduced Risk of Anxiety with Psychostimulant Treatment in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder", the researchers report a statistically significant reduction in the risk of anxiety associated with psychostimulants compared to placebo, and furthermore, higher doses of psychostimulants appear to be associated with a greater reduction in the risk of anxiety .

• "This new information on psychostimulants has the potential to change the way we treat kids with ADHD and improve the quality of their lives," says Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology and president of the Child Mind Institute in New York.

study published in eurekaalert.org