The diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is on the rise in the U.S. From 2003 to 2011, the rate of ADHD diagnosis increased approximately 5 percent per year. Today, ADHD medication, often in the form of stimulants, is the second-most prescribed medication for children. A recent study by researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health has found a link between the stimulants prescribed for ADHD and childhood obesity.
The researchers found that the initial use of stimulants slowed the growth of children’s body mass index (BMI). However, later in childhood, the researchers observed a BMI rebound. This rebound caused the BMI of the medicated children to surpass that of children who had not taken stimulants. In some cases, this rebound led to childhood obesity. Furthermore, the researchers found that the BMI growth was slower and the rebound larger when the stimulant medication was taken earlier in life and continued for a long period. Typically, the rebound occurred after patients discontinued the medication.
The study used records from the Geisinger Health System, a Pennsylvania-based health services organization. The researchers looked at 163,820 children aged 3-18, all of whom lived in central to northeastern Pennsylvania. An equal number of boys and girls were included in the study. The researchers developed a control group with children who had never been diagnosed with ADHD and had never taken stimulants. The rest of the children were divided into three groups: individuals of one group had received a diagnosis of ADHD but had not taken stimulants, those of another had taken stimulants but hadn’t been diagnosed with ADHD and those of the third had been diagnosed with ADHD and had taken stimulants.
The researchers found that children in the latter group had the slowest growth of BMI in early adolescence. However, this group also exhibited a rapid BMI growth later in their lives. The increase was so large that the average BMI of this third group eventually passed that of the control. Children who had been diagnosed with ADHD but did not take any stimulants had faster BMI growth after age 10 than the control. Children who had taken stimulants but didn’t have an ADHD diagnosis had a BMI growth that was in between the two other experimental groups.
From this data, the researchers concluded that it was stimulant usage and not necessarily a diagnosis of ADHD that led to greater BMI growth in later adolescence, as well as possible childhood obesity. These findings are an interesting complement to the observed rise in childhood obesity and could have significant public health implications.
The lead researcher of the study was Brian S. Schwartz, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology and Medicine at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study, entitled “Attention Deficit Disorder, Stimulant Use, and Childhood Body Mass Index Trajectory,” was published in the journal Pediatrics. Other researchers involved in the study include Lisa Bailey-Davis, Karen Bandeen-Roche, Jonathan Pollak, Annemarie G. Hirsch, Claudia Nau, Ann Y. Liu and Thomas A. Glass. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
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