Effects of stimulant medication on growth rates across 3 years in the MTA follow-up.
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.


METHODS
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 <.005) and z weight (p <.0001), due primarily to divergence of the newly medicated and the not medicated subgroups. These initially stimulant-naïve subgroups had z scores significantly >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-naïve 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.
James M
JM
Swanson
Glen R
GR
Elliott
Laurence L
LL
Greenhill
Timothy
T
Wigal
L Eugene
LE
Arnold
Benedetto
B
Vitiello
Lily
L
Hechtman
Jeffery N
JN
Epstein
William E
WE
Pelham
Howard B
HB
Abikoff
Jeffrey H
JH
Newcorn
Brooke S G
BSG
Molina
Stephen P
SP
Hinshaw
Karen C
KC
Wells
Betsy
B
Hoza
Peter S
PS
Jensen
Robert D
RD
Gibbons
Kwan
K
Hur
Annamarie
A
Stehli
Mark
M
Davies
John S
JS
March
C Keith
CK
Conners
Mark
M
Caron
Nora D
ND
Volkow
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors
D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants