TORONTO – A new study is shedding light on how kids with hyperactivity and attention disorders feel while taking controversial drugs and stimulants that help them control their behaviour.
When children are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, they’re typically handed stimulants such as Ritalin. It’s a contentious solution in North America and Europe as debate rages over whether kids as young as four years old should be relying on drugs to control their behavior.
Critics say psychological intervention and conventional learning can help kids control their impulsive behaviour instead of drug use.
But in a landmark study, scientists at King’s College London went straight to the source and gave kids the opportunity to share how they felt while on these drugs and results showed, for the most part, kids didn’t feel suppressed or like “robots.”
“Everyone seems to have an opinion about the condition, what causes it, and how to deal with children with ADHD, but the voices of these children are rarely listened to,” said lead researcher Dr. Illina Singh.
“Who better to tell us what ADHD is like and how the medication affects them than the children themselves?”
ADHD meds gave kids time to make decisions: study
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Kids with ADHD who were interviewed in the study say they feel “distracted,” in an endless daydream during school, struggling with concentration on a daily basis. Some even said they had trouble with self-control when interacting with others.
“I say stuff that I don’t even know why I said that and a couple minutes later, I’ll think did I really just do that?” one boy says in a video that outlines the study’s results.
But stimulants helped the kids cope with their impulsiveness. It gave them time to consider how to react to situations that would normally make them act out, some of the kids said.
About 151 families in the United Kingdom and the United States participated in the study.
One 10-year-old boy tries to describe how ADHD affects his daily life.
“If you’re driving in a car, and there’s two different ways, and you usually always go this way…and then one day you want to go the other way, but…the ADHD acts as a blocker, so you can’t,” he says.
The boy says medications help him choose the right way.
Some kids uncomfortable with drug
A portion of the kids who were interviewed admitted they weren’t the happiest when they were taking the drugs because they didn’t feel like their authentic selves.
“I didn’t feel like myself when I was taking the medication. I was too quiet; it wasn’t me,” one girl said, according to the Guardian newspaper in the UK.
Her comments fuel critics’ allegations that the drugs make children feel like “zombies” or “robots” in an attempt to numb hyperactive behaviour.
Others note that most drugs used to treat ADHD come with side effects such as sleep problems, decreased appetite, anxiety and irritability.
Ingredients (such as methylphenidate or amphetamines) used in these stimulants could also increase the risk of heart problems or strokes.
In Canada, ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioural disorder in children.
A UBC study suggested earlier this year that the youngest kids in the classroom are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their older peers.
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