ADHD medication and weight gain in teens linked

Stimulant medications used to treat ADHD could be linked to weight gain in teenagers, according to a new analysis.

About 11 percent of kids ages four to 17 had been diagnosed with ADHD as of 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of these young people took stimulant medications like Adderall or Ritalin.

The study's leader, Dr. Brian S. Schwartz, said those who took stimulant medications as kids tended to have a "rebound" in weight gain as teens, even after they stopped taking the medication.

The study involved analyzing the health records of more than 150,000 children ages three to 18, specifically paying attention to the body mass index (BMI) of those diagnosed with ADHD and if and when they were treated with stimulant medications.

The findings showed that kids start taking medication for their ADHD as early as 10 years old. And those treated with stimulants seemed to gain more weight as teenagers compared to those who did not have ADHD or who didn't use stimulants. What's more, those who started taking stimulants earlier had higher BMIs earlier in their adolescent years.

These findings "point a much stronger finger of concern at stimulant use in accounting for the obesity than they do at ADHD itself," Schwartz told Reuters. "We believe the treatment is the problem, not the diagnosis itself."

Schwartz and his co-authors say these stimulants usually suppress appetite, so that may be why weight stays down at first, until the body develops resistance to growth inhibition and eventually "rebounds."

One expert not involved in the study said that long-term stimulant use would lead to obesity, "But this assumes that, for example, patients with 10 years of (stimulant) treatment have the same severity of illness as those with one to two months of treatment," Stephen V. Faraone, who studies ADHD at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, said. "Clearly, that is not the case."