According to Mayo Clinic, an 18-year study on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has revealed that prescription stimulants can improve the long-term academic success of hyperactive children.
This population-based report is the first of its kind which shows that stimulant drug therapy has long-term school benefits.
Children with ADHD usually lags behind in studies as they have short attention span. A related Mayo Clinic report shows that it is common to find low reading achievement, absenteeism, repeating a grade, and dropping out of school cases amongst ADHD children.
In the United States, there are about 3 to 5 percent (nearly 2 million) of children suffering from this disorder. To put it even clearer, most classrooms now have at least one child diagnosed with ADHD. Typical symptoms include the inability to focus and control impulsive behavior (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/adhd.cfm ).
The two Mayo Clinic studies succeeded in investigating links between ADHD and school performance. What makes the data meaningful was that the children were placed in the sample group from child-birth, till an average of 18 years.
From a total of more than 5,000 children evaluated, 370 (277 boys and 93 girls) were identified as having ADHD. They were by age and gender to 740 children who did not meet the research criteria for having ADHD.
In addition to stimulants such as methylphenidate, other factors like maternal age, socioeconomic background, and special education services the students received were also analyzed.
The results from ADHD children who began taking stimulants in elementary schools for 30 months were as follows. No gender difference to poor school outcome for untreated ADHD cases but girls are susceptible to being undetected and hence untreated.
By age 13, there is some correlation of improved reading with stimulant dosage. As for absenteeism: there was a decrease after treatment with stimulants. Grade Retention also improved 1.8 times for ADHD children undergoing treatment.
This population-based report is the first of its kind which shows that stimulant drug therapy has long-term school benefits.
Children with ADHD usually lags behind in studies as they have short attention span. A related Mayo Clinic report shows that it is common to find low reading achievement, absenteeism, repeating a grade, and dropping out of school cases amongst ADHD children.
In the United States, there are about 3 to 5 percent (nearly 2 million) of children suffering from this disorder. To put it even clearer, most classrooms now have at least one child diagnosed with ADHD. Typical symptoms include the inability to focus and control impulsive behavior (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/adhd.cfm ).
The two Mayo Clinic studies succeeded in investigating links between ADHD and school performance. What makes the data meaningful was that the children were placed in the sample group from child-birth, till an average of 18 years.
From a total of more than 5,000 children evaluated, 370 (277 boys and 93 girls) were identified as having ADHD. They were by age and gender to 740 children who did not meet the research criteria for having ADHD.
In addition to stimulants such as methylphenidate, other factors like maternal age, socioeconomic background, and special education services the students received were also analyzed.
The results from ADHD children who began taking stimulants in elementary schools for 30 months were as follows. No gender difference to poor school outcome for untreated ADHD cases but girls are susceptible to being undetected and hence untreated.
By age 13, there is some correlation of improved reading with stimulant dosage. As for absenteeism: there was a decrease after treatment with stimulants. Grade Retention also improved 1.8 times for ADHD children undergoing treatment.
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