ADHD meds in preschool likely to be continued in school‐age children

Attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is usually first diagnosed and treated at the beginning of elementary school, which is a problem for those children who have severe and impairing symptoms in preschool years. The Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS), a controlled clinical trial published almost 10 years ago, found that methylphenidate was effective in preschoolers with severe ADHD. Subsequent studies found that ADHD diagnosed in preschool persists through school‐age years. However, little is known about long‐term pharmacotherapy for children first treated with methylphenidate — whether stimulants are added or substituted, in particular. For parents asking about the type and duration of treatment, this information would be useful, as well as important to clinicians and researchers. So for this study, researchers wanted to look at the treatment of children first diagnosed with the disorder as preschoolers and how they fared over time. Longitudinal data are critically important but hard to come by, given the difficulty of maintaining the participation of the research group and a constant source of research support to carry out the follow‐up evaluations.