Can Zinc Treat ADHD?
Can Zinc Treat ADHD?
Hello, this is Dr. Robert Findling. I'm Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University Hospital's Case Medical Center, and Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University. As viewers already know, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a diagnosis commonly given to children. Although there are already established treatments for this condition, it is important that new therapeutics be explored to provide clinicians, children, and parents treatment options that might best meet a child's individual needs.
Today in this posting, I'll be talking a bit about a new treatment study conducted in children who have ADHD. The lead investigator of this pilot study is Dr. Gene Arnold, and this paper was just published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Preliminary data already suggest that dietary zinc supplements might be beneficial for children with ADHD. To further explore what role zinc might have in ADHD treatment, the investigators undertook a multiphase study.
First they conducted a study that consisted of 3 phases, in which 52 children between the ages of 6 and 14 were treated. In the first phase, the children were treated either with zinc or matching placebo for 8 weeks. In the next phase, which lasted 2 weeks, the patients had fixed doses of amphetamine added to the matching zinc or placebo. Finally, in the last phase of the study, the amphetamine dose the children were receiving could be adjusted to achieve optimal effect; this phase was 3 weeks in length.
In short, what did the investigators find? In both of the first 2 phases, there was no superiority of zinc when compared with placebo; zinc monotherapy was not found to be effective in ADHD symptom amelioration. Furthermore, zinc was not found to be beneficial as an adjunct to amphetamine, at least as far as symptom amelioration was concerned. However, the investigators did find that when zinc was administered twice daily, the optimal weight-adjusted dose for amphetamine [could be] decreased by 37% compared with children who were treated with placebo.
To summarize, the study suggests that zinc is not associated with symptomatic reductions, either alone or in combination with amphetamine, in children with ADHD. However, these data do suggest the possibility that zinc supplementation may be associated with optimal doses of stimulants. It should be remembered that these data are from a pilot study and that results should therefore be considered preliminary or tentative. Further studies are needed to either confirm or refute what I think are very interesting preliminary findings. I'm Dr. Robert Findling. Thank you for watching.
Hello, this is Dr. Robert Findling. I'm Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University Hospital's Case Medical Center, and Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University. As viewers already know, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a diagnosis commonly given to children. Although there are already established treatments for this condition, it is important that new therapeutics be explored to provide clinicians, children, and parents treatment options that might best meet a child's individual needs.
Today in this posting, I'll be talking a bit about a new treatment study conducted in children who have ADHD. The lead investigator of this pilot study is Dr. Gene Arnold, and this paper was just published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Preliminary data already suggest that dietary zinc supplements might be beneficial for children with ADHD. To further explore what role zinc might have in ADHD treatment, the investigators undertook a multiphase study.
First they conducted a study that consisted of 3 phases, in which 52 children between the ages of 6 and 14 were treated. In the first phase, the children were treated either with zinc or matching placebo for 8 weeks. In the next phase, which lasted 2 weeks, the patients had fixed doses of amphetamine added to the matching zinc or placebo. Finally, in the last phase of the study, the amphetamine dose the children were receiving could be adjusted to achieve optimal effect; this phase was 3 weeks in length.
In short, what did the investigators find? In both of the first 2 phases, there was no superiority of zinc when compared with placebo; zinc monotherapy was not found to be effective in ADHD symptom amelioration. Furthermore, zinc was not found to be beneficial as an adjunct to amphetamine, at least as far as symptom amelioration was concerned. However, the investigators did find that when zinc was administered twice daily, the optimal weight-adjusted dose for amphetamine [could be] decreased by 37% compared with children who were treated with placebo.
To summarize, the study suggests that zinc is not associated with symptomatic reductions, either alone or in combination with amphetamine, in children with ADHD. However, these data do suggest the possibility that zinc supplementation may be associated with optimal doses of stimulants. It should be remembered that these data are from a pilot study and that results should therefore be considered preliminary or tentative. Further studies are needed to either confirm or refute what I think are very interesting preliminary findings. I'm Dr. Robert Findling. Thank you for watching.
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