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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Adolescent girls with ADHD are at a significantly higher risk for cigarette smoking and substance abuse than girls without -- but new research shows that risk can be lessened by treatment with stimulant drugs.
The new study confirms similar findings in boys and shoots down concerns that stimulant drug treatment increases the risk of drug or alcohol abuse.
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Girls with ADHD actually tend to get into trouble with substance abuse earlier than do boys with the disorder, so confirming those results was not simply academic, lead study author Timothy Wilens, M.D., director of the Substance Abuse Program in the Massachusetts Pediatric Psychopharmacology Department and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, was quoted as saying.
Researchers assessed girls with ADHD for use, abuse and dependence on tobacco, alcohol, marijuana or other drugs five years after they joined a larger study. Results show treatment with stimulant drugs halved the risk of smoking or substance abuse.
We can confidently say that stimulant treatment does not increase the risk of future substance abuse or smoking in girls with ADHD and at least delays the onset of cigarette smoking and substance abuse, Dr. Wilens said.
SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2008;162:916-921
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