Delinquent Behavior and Emerging Substance Use in the MTA at 36 Months: Prevalence, Course, and Treatment Effects

• NCJ Number: 219695
• Journal: Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 46 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2007 Pages: 1028-1040
• Author(s): Booke S.G. Molina Ph.D.; Kate Flory Ph.D.; Stephen P. Hinshaw Ph.D.; Andrew R. Greiner B.S.; L. Eugene Arnold M.D.; James M. Swanson Ph.D.; Lily Hechtman M.D.; Peter S. Jensen M.D.; Benedetto Vitiello M.D.; Betsy Hoza Ph.D.; William E. Pelham Ph.D.; Glen R. Elliott Ph.D., M.D.; Karen C. Wells Ph.D.; Howard B. Abikoff Ph.D.; Robert D. Gibbons Ph.D.; Sue Marcus Ph.D.; C. Keith Connors Ph.D.; Jefferey N. Epstein Ph.D.; Laurence L. Greenhill M.D.; John S. March M.D., MPH; Jeffrey H. Newcorn M.D.; Joanne B. Severe M.S.; Timothy Wigal Ph.D.
• Date Published: August 2007
• Length: 13 pages
• Grant Number(s): U01MH50461; N01MH12009; U01MH50477; N01MH12012; U01MH50440; N01MH12011; U01MH50467; N01MH12007; U01MH50453
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compared delinquent behavior and early substance use between children in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and children in a local normative comparison group at 24 and 36 months after the two groups were established, and it tested whether outcomes were predicted by the treatment and subsequently prescribed medications.

Abstract

Compared with the local normative comparison group (n=272), children who participated in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD (MTA; n=487) had significantly higher rates of delinquency at 36 months (27.1 percent for the MTA children compared with 7.4 percent for comparison children). The MTA children also had higher rates of substance use (17.4 percent compared to 7.8 percent at 36 months). MTA children randomly assigned to intensive behavior therapy reported less 24-month substance use than other MTA children. At 24 and 36 months, more days of prescribed medication were associated with more serious delinquency but not substance use. The cause-and-effect links between medication treatment and delinquency are unclear. The absence of associations between medication treatment and substance use should be reassessed at older ages. These findings show the need to continuously monitor treatment outcomes as children with ADHD enter adolescence. Each of 6sites randomly selected 96 to 98 children to 1 of 4 treatment groups: intensive multicomponent behavior therapy, intensive medication management, a combination of the 2 treatments, or referral to traditional community care. Participants were reassessed at completion of the 14-month treatment phase (ages 8-12), at 24 months, and at 36 months. 3 tables and 65 references