ADHD and learning

ADHD drugs help kids do better at school

Around 2.4 million children in the US suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, with its symptoms of poor impulse control and excessive energy. ADHD can have a disastrous effect on a child’s academic success – kids with the condition are more likely to miss school, get poor grades and drop out entirely compared to children who don’t have the disorder.

Now new research findings from a study carried out over 18 years by the Mayo Clinic suggests that medication helps improve their academic performance and attendance record. Lead researcher Dr William Barbaresi, a pediatrician with the Mayo Clinic, believes the study suggests that all children with ADHD might benefit from drug therapy – not only because it can help control their symptoms but because its positive effect on their academic achievement potentially has a huge bearing on how their lives pan out.

Controlling ADHD symptoms with drugs has long been the subject of debate, with critics suggesting that ADHD medication may blunt children’s capacity to learn and that kids who take it risk side-effects including loss of appetite, stomach upsets, difficulty falling asleep and stunted growth. Many experts claim that the condition is related to our highly-refined junk food diet, lack of exercise or overstimulation caused by modern media and that treatment measures should address these factors and include psychological, educational and social measures, instead of relying solely on medication. Others believe ADHD itself doesn’t even exist, seeing it as merely a label for children’s natural exuberance combined with poor parental skills.

Updated November 13 2007

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