ADHD drug benefits "exaggerated," report claims

The treatment of children who suffer from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with drugs is "not effective in the long term," according to a report broadcast in the UK by the BBC. After three years of treatment, researchers claim that behavioral therapy is as effective as Swiss drug major Novartis' Ritalin (methylphenidate), which is licensed from US firm Celgene, as well as US health care giant Johnson & Johnson's Concerta (extended-release methylphenidate HCl).

William Pelham, a professor at the University of Buffalo, USA, who is a co-author of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD, said: "I think we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study." He added that the children taking the drugs had a decreased growth rate but "that there were no beneficial effects - none."

According to the BBC, ADHD drugs were prescribed to about 55,000 children in the UK in 2006, at a cost of L28.0 million ($58.3 million) to the National Health Service.