An international study, run by the University of Dundee, involving hundreds of children has
discovered that the most frequently prescribed medication, Methylphenidate, for the treatment of
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents is safe to use long-term.
The World Health Organization (WHO) rejected Methylphenidate for inclusion in their Essential
Medicines List due to concerns regarding the quality and limitations of the available data and
evidence for both benefit and risk. However, the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Drugs Use
Chronic Effects (ADDUCE) project has revealed that methylphenidate does not increase the risk of
psychiatric or neurological adverse effects or growth impairments in children and adolescents.
Over the course of two years, approximately 1410 children from various child and adolescent mental
health centres in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Hungary participated in the project.
According to the study, children taking methylphenidate grew at the same pace as children who did
not and there was no adverse effect on their mental health.
Dr Sarah Inglis, from the University of Dundee’s School of Medicine, served as the project trial
manager for the ADDUCE study. She stated, “The use of methylphenidate has gone up greatly since
it was licensed in the 1950s and yet information about side effects from long-term use is scarce. We
observed the characteristics of a large number of children with ADHD across Europe, including 274
from Dundee, taking methylphenidate over a period of two years. We compared these
characteristics with children with ADHD not taking methylphenidate, and with children without
ADHD. The study shows that the growth rate of children taking methylphenidate over two years was
not different to that of children who were not.”
These findings of the ADDUCE study provide supportive evidence for the inclusion of
methylphenidate on WHO’s Essential Medicines List, which would help increase the availability of
the medicine and support more children around the world with ADHD.
The University of Dundee is a key partner of the ADDUCE Consortium alongside several universities
and institutions around the world, including the University College London, the University of Hong
Kong and the University of Melbourne.