Efficacy of Stimulants Beyond Treatment of Core Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Although the use of stimulants continues to increase in all age groups in the United States,¹ an important debate has emerged in the last 2 years about how effective stimulants are for treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For some investigators, the main message in the literature is clear: the quality of evidence from randomized clinical trials on the efficacy of stimulants is poor.² For others, the problem is in the meta-analysis from which these conclusions were taken.³