Reluctant to put your child with ADHD on medication? Well, now you have one more reason to be concerned, explains Brenda Goodman in “ADHD Drugs Linked to Later Weight Gain in Kids.” The CBS News story reports that a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics (online publication March 17 and print publication April 2014) links ADHD stimulant medications to weight gain.
According to the study, by their late teens, young people diagnosed with ADHD who took stimulant drugs and then stopped were more likely to be one to two BMI points heavier than other young people.
Could the ADHD itself be to blame? Dr. Brian Schwartz, the author of the study, explains that research supports the idea that the drugs are to blame. He states, “The reason we think it is more likely to be the drugs than the diagnosis is because the earlier the drugs were started and the longer the drugs were used, the stronger the effects.” Researchers recommend that parents carefully consider the pros and cons of medicating or not medicating based on their child’s needs.