The stimulant drugs used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can stunt growth , according to a new study from Children's Hospital in Boston.
But benefits of the drugs often outweigh the small amount of growth restriction they cause, say investigators.
"Parents need to know that when children are on stimulant treatment, although they're probably the best way of treating ADHD, there's a possibility of growth restriction," said neurologist Omar Khwaja, who presented the study at Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Francisco.
"Their physicians need to pay attention and monitor growth in these children, and if it falls off of what is expected, think about lowering the dose or changing the dosing schedule."
About 5 percent of American children have ADHD, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The main symptoms are an inability to pay attention, hyperactive behavior and impulsivity.
One known side effect of drug treatments is loss of appetite and doctors have long suspected a corresponding restriction in growth.
Khwaja and his colleagues reviewed over 800 studies on ADHD looking for those with good data on height and weight. They wound up pooling data from 22 well-documented studies.
The Boston researchers found that ADHD drugs slightly inhibited growth significantly, though slightly -- the average growth suppression for a 10-year-old boy was about three-quarters of an inch in height and a little more than two pounds in weight.
Dr. David W. Goodman, a psychiatrist from Johns Hopkins who also worked on the study, said parents must balance the side effects of ADHD drugs against their benefits.
"These medications are remarkably helpful," he said. "Let's put this risk in context with the tremendous benefits that can be gained.
"For parents that are reluctant to put children and adolescents on medications, I suggest a trial of a couple of weeks or months. You don't have to make a commitment to medication. For most, once they go on the medications, the improvement is so dramatic, they rarely go off."
Both Goodman and Khwaja said changing the timing of administering and dosage of the medication might also make a difference in growth suppression. They also said there is evidence that many youngsters catch up in growth once they go off the medications.
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