Drugs prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are among the most controversial on the market. Such drugs are the most common psychotropic drugs used by children (tied for first place with antidepressants),¹ yet they have questionable benefits and serious risks.

Medicating children with ADHD is in itself controversial, especially because there is no laboratory test or objective method to determine which children have ADHD.

Some may be labeled as such by parents or teachers, and even those diagnosed by a mental health professional may be displaying symptoms that could be attributed to other causes.

Many of the symptoms, such as being easily distracted, squirming and fidgeting, are seen in virtually all children at some point or another and, should they become problematic, may be better dealt with via lifestyle changes and psychotherapy than powerful stimulant drugs.

Any parent considering drug treatment for a child with ADHD must carefully weigh the benefits versus the risks, and new research suggests the purported benefits do not extend to improvements in school.

ADHD Drugs Don’t Help Kids Get Better Grades

A major concern of parents of children with ADHD is how it might affect their schoolwork. Worried that their child may fall behind other students or struggle with poor grades, some parents resort to drug treatment, believing it will help. Some drug companies even advertise their treatments as helping to improve homework time.

“Evidence indicates that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) experience acute and prolonged academic impairment and underachievement including marked difficulty with completing homework,” researchers wrote in a new study.²

It’s the first to examine the effects of drug versus behavioral treatment on homework performance in children with ADHD.

Seventy-five children between the ages of 5 and 12 participated. One group was assigned to receive either a stimulant drug or a placebo for three weeks, then switched. Another group received behavioral therapy.

The drug treatment led to no significant improvements in homework completion or accuracy compared to placebo. The behavioral therapy, however, led to children finishing up to 13 percent more homework problems and increased accuracy by 8 percent.

This homework boost could be the difference between a child receiving a passing “C” grade or failing a class, the researchers noted, adding:³

“Behavioral treatment focused on homework problems results in clear benefits for children's homework completion and accuracy (the difference between passing and failing, on average), whereas long-acting stimulant medication resulted in limited and largely nonsignificant acute effects on homework performance.”