Effects of Stimulant Medication on Neuropsychological Functioning in Young Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: The main goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of stimulant medication on executive function deficits in a group of adolescents and young adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; DSM-III-R criteria). METHOD: Male and female subjects aged 15 to 25 years were divided into 3 groups: subjects with ADHD treated with stimulants who took their medication at the time of testing (ADHD active stimulant treatment: N = 26), subjects with ADHD who had not taken stimulant medication in the past month (ADHD no stimulant treatment: N = 94), and non-ADHD control subjects (controls: N = 133). The neuropsychological battery assessed domains of cognitive functioning known to be relevant in ADHD, including tests of executive functions and learning and memory. Data were collected from July 1998 to April 2003. RESULTS: The ADHD no stimulant treatment group had significantly lower aggregate scores compared with the controls for the total aggregate, working memory, interference control, processing speed, sustained attention, and verbal learning domains (all p < .001). The ADHD active stimulant treatment group had significantly poorer scores on the total aggregate (p = .002), interference control (p < .001), and processing speed (p = .003) domains compared with the controls. The ADHD active stimulant treatment subjects scored significantly higher on the domains of sustained attention (p = .04) and verbal learning (p = .03) compared with the ADHD no stimulant treatment subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that subjects with ADHD who took stimulant medication had higher neuropsychological measures of attention compared with subjects with ADHD who did not take stimulant medication, but differences were not found for other measures of executive function.
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Stimulants and atomoxetine yield modest improvements in behavioural measures of executive functioning as well as performance on executive memory, reaction time and inhibitory control tasks.
“stimulants 187 and atomoxetine 188 yield modest improvements in behavioural measures of executive functioning as well as performance on executive memory, reaction time and inhibitory control tasks 72 .”
From Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (2015) · cites this paper as [187]
The Results (page unavailable) report modestly higher sustained-attention and verbal-learning scores in adolescents and young adults with ADHD taking stimulants. The Discussion (page unavailable) says stimulants did not affect interference control or processing speed, so this paper does not support the attributed improvements in inhibitory control and reaction-time-related performance. It does not assess atomoxetine, which has a separate citation in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOther stimulant ADHD medications that affect norepinephrine and dopamine levels, such as methylphenidate, have also shown efficacy for improving deficits in some executive functioning categories but not others.
“Other stimulant ADHD medications that affect norepinephrine and dopamine levels, such as methylphenidate, have also shown efficacy for improving deficits in some executive functioning categories but not others [30], [31].”
From Atomoxetine Effects on Executive Function as Measured by the BRIEF-A in Young Adults with ADHD: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study (2014) · cites this paper as [30]
The Results (page not specified) report better sustained attention and verbal learning scores among participants taking stimulants, but not improvements across other measured executive-function domains. The paper studies stimulants as a group; our copy does not establish a methylphenidate-specific effect or discuss norepinephrine and dopamine levels. Its findings therefore support the uneven pattern of improvement, but not those drug-specific details. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the same study, the ADHD subgroup on medication had better performance on sustained attention (CPT) and verbal learning (California Verbal Learning Test) than the ADHD subgroup not on medication.
“A comparison of ADHD subgroups revealed that the subgroup on medication had better performance on sustained attention (measured by the CPT) and verbal learning (measured by the California Verbal Learning Test).”
From Understanding the Effects of Stimulant Medications on Cognition in Individuals with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Decade of Progress (2011) · cites this paper as Biederman et al (2008)
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- Authors
- Biederman, J., Seidman, L. J., Petty, C. R., Fried, R., Doyle, A. E., Cohen, D. R., Kenealy, D. C., & Faraone, S. V.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- SUNY Upstate Medical University (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc
- Published
- 2008-07-15
- Volume
- 69
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1150-1156
- ISSN
- 0160-6689 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1991127706
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 3.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Eli Lilly and Company
- Pfizer
- AstraZeneca
- GlaxoSmithKline
- National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression
- U.S. Public Health Service
- National Institute of Mental Health
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD036317, 5 R01 HD36317-07)
- UCB Pharma
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Keywords
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, stimulant medication, executive function, neuropsychological performance, young adults, adolescents, working memory, processing speed, sustained attention, interference control, verbal learning, learning and memory
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Central Nervous System Stimulants, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Child, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychotropic Drugs, Severity of Illness Index, Case-Control Studies, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
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