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Psychostimulants Given To Kids As Young As Five Cannot Improve Grades To Match Non-ADHD Peers!

According to the National Institute Of Mental Health, the May 2009 Issue of Pediatrics features a study of 594 kids (based on a U.S. Department of Education Survey) completed by a University Of California at Berkley team claiming that ADHD drugs (including psychostimulants known to have certain uncommon but dangerous side effects) given to hundreds of school-aged, ADHD-diagnosed children from kindergarten through fifth grade may be linked to very slight academic performance in math and reading.

The score improvements averaged as low as 2.9 points higher in math and 5.4 points in reading and only when compared against ADHD peers who - for some strange reason - received no treatment for a disorder which the mental health community proclaims to be signficantly detrimental to childhood cognitive development. The NIMH offers no explanation as to why so many children were not provided some form of alternative treatment.

With a narrow focus on whether or not ADHD drugs can be credited with some measure of academic performance (a prize that has been pursued for years by drug manufacturers and drug company lobbyists), the study failed to compare drug-treated children (kindergarteners through fifth graders) against other ADHD-diagnosed kids who may have had the option of drug-free, alternative treatments. Additionally, the study failed to account for any added support (classroom, family, therapy) which may have been accessed by ADHD students who received the drugs, in comparison to the ADHD students who are reported to have had no treatment, drug or otherwise.

Researchers admit that the results expose a significant gap in academic performance of the drug-treated children when compared to children who were not diagnosed with ADHD. This gap indicates that ADHD drugs (including controversial psychostimulants given to students as young as five years old) cannot improve academic and cognitive performance nearly enough to help ADHD students keep pace with non-ADHD students. This problem with ADHD drugs has been highlighted in previous scientific studies and remains a sticking point with many parents who currently weigh the physiological and psychological risks of such drugs against the failure to solve the larger academic problem, opening the door to increasingly popular ADHD treatment alternatives that are gaining more impressive scientific study results on behalf of school performance as well as mitigating bothersome symptoms of the disorder.