Common ADHD Alternative Not Effective
Reported June 11, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common disorder affecting three to 12 percent of children in the United States. Up to 30 percent of these children do not respond to or experience negative effects from medications prescribed to treat the symptoms of ADHD and subsequently turn to alternative treatments for symptom management; however, the most commonly used alternative treatment, St. Johns wort (Hypericum perforatum), may not help at all.
In the first clinical trial of its kind to test the effectiveness of St. Johns wort versus a placebo treatment, researchers at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Wash. studied 54 children and adolescents with ADHD. Participants were divided into two groups. The first received 300 mg of St. Johns wort three times a day for eight weeks while the second group received a placebo in the same dose.
Data collected from the study revealed there were no significant differences between the two groups in ADHD rating scale scores from the start of the trial through the end of the eight weeks.
To our knowledge, this is the first placebo-controlled trial of H perforatum [St. Johns wort] in children and adolescents, study authors write. The results of this study suggest that administration of H perforatum has no additional benefit beyond that of placebo for treating symptoms of child and adolescent ADHD.
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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008;299:2633-264