In a follow up to a major NIMH trail, Stimulants showed behavioral deterioration for ADHD patients after 14 months
The major NIMH trail that proved the superiority of stimulants for treating ADHD over therapy did not include a placebo group and 20 percent of the therapy group were on stimulants. However, Stimulants have been shown to not improve behavior over the long-term. After a fourteen-month period of stimulant treatment, the investigators followed up periodically with the students, assessing how they were doing and whether they were taking an ADHD medication. At the end of three years, Jensen and the others discovered that “medication use was a significant marker not of beneficial outcome, but of deterioration. That is, participants using medication in the 24-to-36 month period actually showed increased symptomatology during that interval relative to those not taking medication.”
In other words, those on medications saw their core ADHD symptoms—the impulsiveness, the inattentiveness, the hyperactivity—worsen, at least in comparison to those not on drugs. In addition, those on meds had higher “delinquency scores” at the end of three years, which meant they were more likely to get into trouble in school and with the police. They were also now shorter and weighed less than their off-med counterparts, evidence that the drugs suppressed growth. These results told of a drug therapy causing long-term harm, and when the NIMH-funded investigators reported on six-year outcomes, the findings remained the same. Medication use was “associated with worse hyperactivity-impulsivity and Oppositional defiant disorder symptoms” and with greater “overall functional impairment.” Why? Because The brain adapts to psychotropic drugs by increasing or decreasing neurotransmitter production and receptor density.
References
- Whitaker, Robert. (2010). Anatomy of an Epidemic Chapter 11 The Epidemic Spreads to Children (Epub p. 310). New York , NY: Crown Publishing.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Psychiatry / Pharmacology / Biology / Neuroscience Status:☀️