"Scientists are updating their view of how drugs like Adderall and Ritalin help children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder stay on task. The latest evidence is a study of thousands of brain scans of adolescents that confirms earlier hints that stimulant drugs have little direct impact on brain networks that control attention. Instead, the drugs appear to activate networks involved in alertness and the anticipation of pleasure, scientists report in the journal Cell."
""We think it's a combination of both arousal and reward, that kind of one-two punch, that really helps kids with ADHD when they take this medication," says Dr. Benjamin Kay, a pediatric neurologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the study's lead author. The results, along with those of smaller studies, support a "mindset shift about what stimulants are doing for people," says Peter Manza, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland who was not involved in the research."
Thousands of adolescent brain scans confirm that stimulant drugs have little direct impact on attention-control networks. The drugs instead activate networks involved in arousal, wakefulness and anticipation of pleasurable reward. Resting-state MRI data from nearly 12,000 children included about 4% with ADHD, about half of whom were taking prescription stimulants. Approximately 3.5 million U.S. children take ADHD medication. Expected increases in activity in attention-control regions were minimal, while increased activity appeared in regions tied to alertness and reward anticipation. These combined arousal and reward effects likely underlie improved task persistence in medicated children.
Read at www.npr.org
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