June 11, 2025Stimulants do not cause psychosis in children, concluded a new study published in Pediatrics.1 The study assuages concerns raised by previous observational research linking the use of stimulants to psychosis, which prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007 to add a warning label to stimulants.2 The new study demonstrated that the slight association between stimulant use and psychosis is correlated to other factors, including the severity of ADHD symptoms, and not caused by the medications.The research team, led by Ian Kelleher, M.D., chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K, used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a longitudinal study that followed 8,391 children ages 9 to 14, for a year.
Of these children, 5.5% were taking stimulant medication for ADHD.Among both the general population and children taking stimulants, the risk of having a psychotic episode was very low.
Children who took stimulants were slightly more likely than others to experience psychosis, but the reverse was also true: Children who experienced psychosis were almost twice as likely to take stimulant medication.“The relationship of treatment to psychotic experiences is illusory,” explained Russell Barkley, Ph.D., in a video on his YouTube channel. “It’s the result of a third variable.
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