According to a large cross-sectional study presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), children and adolescents on medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show a decreased density of their bones.
According to EurekAlert, the study only showed an association and experts say that it's not clear that the medications themselves actually make the kids' bones thin since there could be other explanations for it.
Dr. Jessica Rivera, an orthopedic surgeon with the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and senior researcher of the study, said that she is not suggesting that "kids shouldn't be on these medications". She explained that studies like this raise questions for further research rather than give answers.
The findings of the study are scheduled to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in Orlando, Florida. Until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, data and conclusions presented at meetings are considered preliminary.
Researchers identified for this study a number of 5.315 pediatric patients in the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The research team compared children not on medications with those who are reportedly taking ADHD medication. The findings of the study suggested that children on ADHD medication had lower bone mineral density in the lumbar spine, femoral neck and femur.
According to U.S. Health News, Dr. Rivera declared that the new study represents an important step in understanding the ADHD drugs used with increasing frequency and their effect on children. The findings are important because kids at their age "are at a critical time for building their bones".
ADHD has become a common medical condition that is often diagnosed in childhood. According to the estimation of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States alone in the year 2011, 6.4 million children were diagnosed with ADHD.
The CDC also declared that there is a 28 percent increase from 2007 to 2011 in the number of children and teenagers taking medications to treat ADHD. The number reported by the parents has reached to 3.5 million.
