Interventions for Growth Suppression in Medicated Youth with ADHD

To formally assess the efficacy and feasibility of drug holiday and weight-recovery treatments (WRTs) on growth in children receiving stimulant medication (MED), investigators randomly assigned 230 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; age range, 5–12 years; 95% treatment-naive) to MED or behavior therapy (BT) in a 4:1 ratio. Participants with sustained declines in body-mass index after 6 months (71 children; 43% of medication users) continued MED (or, in the case of BT recipients, began MED) and were randomized to one of three WRTs: caloric supplementation (CS; a daily 150-kcal drink); drug holiday (DH; treatment limited to school days plus switch to drug formulations with shorter duration); or monthly monitoring (M…