August 7, 2018

ADHD medications – How well do they actually work?

The use of medication for ADHD, particularly in children, is very controversial with lots of public concern about over-prescribing and side-effects from the drugs. Added to that, previous well-publicised research has suggested some of these drugs may not be as good as we thought. In a bid to re-examine the evidence, Researchers publishing in The Lancet Psychiatry have looked at all the key drugs used for ADHD in children, adolescents and adults in a systematic review and network meta-analysis. The authors have assessed the efficacy and tolerability of these drugs using data amassed from over 130 trials, including more than 8,000 children and teenagers and 5,000 adults.

Speakers:

Prof Andrea Cipriani, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford

Dr Samuele Cortese, Associate Professor in Psychology, University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Solent NHS Trust

Prof Emily Simonoff, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

Prof David Coghill, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and Financial Markets Foundation Chair of Developmental Mental Health, University of Melbourne