ADHD Drugs Have No Long term Effects

A new study has come out proving that drugs used to help kids with ADHD do not have long term effects. The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) released the results saying that the drugs work in the short term, but after three years there is no benefit to it, according to FOX News. They also found that the drug may stunt the growth of the child. The co-author of the report from the University of Buffalo Professor William Pelham said, "The children (taking the medication) weren't growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and in terms of their weight." This went against previous reports stating that the longer the drugs, such as Ritalin, were used the more effective they were. Pelham also said, "I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study," he told BBC. "We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes. That didn't happen to be the case. In the short run (medication) will help the child behave better, in the long run it won't. And that information should be made very clear to parents."