In Finland, children take ADHD medication for more than three years on average even though safety data for the medications is only available until a one-year follow-up. The corresponding study was published in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
"This is an important research opening, as the duration of long-term use of ADHD medication in children and adolescents in everyday life has only been studied to a very limited extent," lead author of the study, Päivi Ruokoniemi, a Specialist in both Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Child Psychiatry from the University of Helsinki, said in a press release.
She added that the proportion of children and adolescents using ADHD medication in Finland has doubled since the years analyzed in her research.
For the study, the researchers analyzed healthcare data from 40, 691 Finnish children aged 6-18 years old who started taking ADHD medications between 2008 and 2019. They were followed for an average of 3.8 years.
Ultimately, the children were found to take ADHD medications for a median of 3.2 years. Boys tended to take the medications for longer periods of time than girls. Age also affected use duration, with younger patients tending to use the drugs for longer. Boys aged between 6 and 8 years old- or 32.4% of the subjects- used the drugs for the longest- for a median of 6.3 years.
The duration of ADHD medication treatment among children is ‘well beyond’ the data available from randomized controlled trials, wrote the researchers in their study.
"Our research shows that a significant proportion of young children, especially boys, are on ADHD medication for years, throughout their comprehensive school years. In this context, it is worrying that reliable research data on the safety of these medicines is only available for a follow-up period of up to one year. After all, we are talking about children at a very sensitive stage of development," said Ruokoniemi.
She continued to explain that while studies have investigated the long-term effects of ADHD medicines, their results do not provide reliable information on cause-and-effect relationships. The researchers recommended that ADHD medications that have already been started should undergo annual review by a medical doctor.
Sources: Science Daily, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry