Amid burgeoning evidence of teenagers' increasing nonmedical use of stimulants (NEJM JW Psychiatry Oct 5 2009), parents may be concerned about using stimulants to treat their children's attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thus, data on these medications' protective effects would be salient.
To address whether stimulant medications affected the development of substance use disorders (SUDs) among ADHD patients, researchers conducted an industry-supported, prospective, longitudinal study. Participants were followed for a mean of 4 years until a mean age of 16. There were three groups: 327 ADHD patients treated with stimulants (85% male), 61 untreated ADHD patients (59% male), and 211 healthy controls (41% male).
Untreated patients h…