Stimulant ADHD Drugs Prescription for Children
Back to the document's frontpageDo stimulant ADHD drugs prescribed for children increase the likelihood of drug or alcohol abuse in adult ADHD sufferers?
Trigger for substance abuse later in life?
Parents and researchers have long been concerned that the administration of effective stimulant drugs to young ADHD patients may be partially responsible for inducing this higher prevalence of substance abuse later in life. The concerns were that the administration of stimulants caused a sensitization to the reward effects of other stimulant drugs, and thus increased the probability of drug addiction; and also that by prescribing psychotropic substances to children we risked inducing a desire to continue to enjoy these drugs through a non clinical administration.
Research carried out by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has thankfully proven the safety of these stimulant drug treatments for the symptoms of ADHD, and although they remain very controversial, they have been proven to greatly diminish the likelihood of future substance abuse when compared to an untreated ADHD population. ADHD stimulant drugs for adult ADHD patients have proven effective in the treatment of stimulant addictions, but have shown little effect for stimulant addiction treatment in people not suffering from ADHD.
