Study Links ADHD medications and Obesity in Adolescents
Children who receive medications and stimulants to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have high risk for obesity during their teen years, according to a research.
Past studies have linked ADHD with development of obesity in childhood and later years. The experts from the John Hopkins University found ADHD medications and stimulants if taken from an early age can delay BMI growth during childhood, which leads to rapid weight gain in adolescence.
The study involved analysis of electronic health records of 163,820 children who were aged between 3 and 18 years. Of the total participants, nearly 8 percent were diagnosed with ADHD and 7 percent had received stimulant prescriptions. The experts again divided them in three groups- participants diagnosed with ADHD who were not prescribed stimulant medications, those with ADHD and who were on medications and participants without ADHD or stimulant prescriptions.
It was observed that body mass index growth in the participants who were prescribed stimulants was slow during their early childhood while the rates elevated during adolescence even after discontinuing medications.
The researchers also noted that children diagnosed with the condition but not prescribed the ADHD medicines began putting on weight after the age of 10.
Experts say the medications reduce appetite causing weight loss and retarded growth during childhood and the weight 'rebounds ' in later years.
Brian S. Schwartz, study author and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology, and Medicine at the Bloomberg School of Public Health said, "The findings point a much stronger finger of concern at stimulant use in accounting for the obesity than they do at ADHD itself. We believe the treatment is the problem, not the diagnosis itself," reports Reuters.
According to the data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 5 percent of children in the U.S. suffer from ADHD and more than 6 percent out of these receive ADHD medications. The prescription of ADHD medications for children aged between 4 and 17 years have increased in the last seven years.
Prof Schwartz said in a press release, "Given the dramatic rise in ADHD diagnosis and stimulant treatment for it in recent decades, this is an interesting avenue of research regarding the childhood obesity epidemic, because the rises in each of these roughly parallel one another."
The research is published in the journal Pediatrics.
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