New Delhi, Sept. 1 -- Despite clear clinical guidelines recommending six months of behavioral therapy before initiating medication for young children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a significant number of pre-schoolers are being prescribed medication almost immediately after diagnosis, a new Stanford Medicine-led study has revealed.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the study highlights a troubling trend: many children aged four and five years are starting pharmacological treatment far earlier than advised, in direct contradiction to guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
Researchers analysed the medical records of nearly 10,000 preschool-aged children across eight pediatric health ne...