Do Stimulant Drugs Improve the Academic Performance of Hyperkinetic Children?

Abstract

Stimulant drug studies based primarily on measures of teacher opinion have frequently concluded that these drugs improve the achievement of hyperkinetic children. However, a review of those studies using more ob jective measures of academic performance revealed few positive short- term or long-term drug effects on these measures. What few improvements have been noted can be readily attributed to better attention during testing. The major effect of the stimulants appears to be an improvement in classroom manageability rather than academic performance.