AD/HD Medications May Not Help Children Get Better Grades

Reuters (9/27, Rapaport) reports that giving stimulants to children with AD/HD “may not help them complete homework or get better grades,” according to a small study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Researchers randomly assigned 75 children “to receive either behavioral treatment that included daily report cards for kids and coaching parents to help with homework or a long-acting stimulant.”

Children “were around 8 years old on average, but ranged from 5 to 12” and all had a diagnosis of AD/HD. The results suggest that medication “had no significant effects on homework completion or accuracy, compared with a placebo,” whereas children receiving behavioral treatment “got 10 percent to 13 percent more homework problems finished and completed 8 percent more problems accurately than they did without the treatment.”

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— “ADHD drugs no help with homework,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, September 27, 2016.

Posted in In The News.