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.
Swanson
James M
JM
Elliott
Glen R
GR
Greenhill
Laurence L
LL
Wigal
Timothy
T
Arnold
L Eugene
LE
Vitiello
Benedetto
B
Hechtman
Lily
L
Epstein
Jeffery N
JN
Pelham
William E
WE
Abikoff
Howard B
HB
Newcorn
Jeffrey H
JH
Molina
Brooke S G
BSG
Hinshaw
Stephen P
SP
Wells
Karen C
KC
Hoza
Betsy
B
Jensen
Peter S
PS
Gibbons
Robert D
RD
Hur
Kwan
K
Stehli
Annamarie
A
Davies
Mark
M
March
John S
JS
Conners
C Keith
CK
Caron
Mark
M
Volkow
Nora D
ND
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