ADHD Drug Has Long-term Benefits for Childhood Cancer Survivors

Methylphenidate (MPH), a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in healthy children also has long-term benefits for childhood cancer survivors, a new study indicates.

 

After 12 months of treatment with MPH, children showed significant improvements on measures of attention, social skills, and behavior compared with a control group of children who did not receive MPH.

 

Cognitive deficits are common in childhood cancer survivors but there are few empirically based treatment options. Previous studies have shown short-term improvements with MPH but its long-term effectiveness was not known.

 

Heather M. Conklin, PhD, of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, and her associates studied the long-term effectiveness of maintenance doses of MPH in survivors of childhood brain cancer (n = 35) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL; n = 33). The study is reported in the September 13 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

 

Compared with the control group, children treated with MPH had significant improvement on a measure of sustained attention as well as on parent, teacher, and self-report ratings of attention and parent ratings of social skills or behavioral problems. Academic skills did not improve significantly in either group.

 

On the basis of their findings and previous studies showing the safety of MPH for cancer survivors, the authors conclude that MPH may be a treatment option to mitigate the cognitive late effects of childhood cancer or its treatment.