Tolerance to Psychostimulant Medication Among Children with ADHD

Medication is the most commonly received treatment for childhood Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with 90% of children having received it at some point in their lives (Danielson et al., 2018). Central Nervous System (CNS) stimulant medication is a well-established short-term treatment for childhood ADHD (Pliszka, 2007). However, there is little support in the literature for long-term benefit of psychostimulants. One possible explanation for this lack of sustained effect is the development of tolerance to the drug. The current study aimed to examine possible evidence of short-term tolerance to stimulant medication, methylphenidate (MPH). Additionally, we investigated previous stimulant medication treatment as a potential predictor of developing indicators of tolerance during the study. Overall, results demonstrate that therapeutic effects of stimulant medication on academic productivity and rule following behavior do not significantly dissipate over three weeks among most children with ADHD. There was one exception in that children who had received a high dose of psychostimulant treatment from their community provider prior to the initiation of the current study showed weakened effects of medication over time as measured by academic productivity but not by rule following behavior.

Major Professor: Dr. William Pelham