title: ADHD, stimulant treatment, and growth: a longitudinal study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is ongoing concern that stimulant medications may adversely affect growth. In a sample of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) cases and controls from a population-based birth cohort, we assessed growth and the association between stimulant treatment and growth.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects included childhood ADHD cases (N = 340) and controls (N = 680) from a 1976 to 1982 birth cohort (N = 5718). Height and stimulant treatment information were abstracted from medical records and obtained during a prospective, adult follow-up study. For each subject, a parametric penalized spline smoothing method modeled height over time, and the corresponding height velocity was calculated as the first derivative. Peak height velocity (PHV) age and magnitude were estimated from the velocity curves. Among stimulant-treated ADHD cases, we analyzed height Z scores at the beginning, at the end, and 24 months after the end of treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Neither ADHD itself nor treatment with stimulants was associated with differences in magnitude of PHV or final adult height. Among boys treated with stimulants, there was a positive correlation between duration of stimulant usage before PHV and age at PHV (r = 0.21, P = .01). There was no significant correlation between duration of treatment and change in height Z scores (r = -0.08 for beginning vs end change, r = 0.01 for end vs 24 months later change). Among the 59 ADHD cases treated for ≥3 years, there was a clinically insignificant decrease in mean Z score from beginning (0.48) to end (0.33) of treatment (P = .06).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that ADHD treatment with stimulant medication is not associated with differences in adult height or significant changes in growth.
authors.affiliation: Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts;
authors.forename: Elizabeth B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Harstad
authors.affiliation: Departments of Health Sciences Research.
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Weaver
authors.affiliation: Departments of Health Sciences Research, william.barbaresi@childrens.harvard.edu slavica.katusic@mayo.edu.
authors.forename: Slavica K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Katusic
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry and Psychology, and.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Colligan
authors.affiliation: Pediatrics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota; and.
authors.forename: Seema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts;
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Voigt
authors.affiliation: Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; william.barbaresi@childrens.harvard.edu slavica.katusic@mayo.edu.
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Barbaresi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001827:Body Height / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants
keywords: adult outcomes; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; growth; height; stimulant medications