Study Evaluates Two Medications for ADHD
University of Illinois at Chicago researchers are comparing two drugs commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to determine if genetic factors predict which children will respond to either or both drugs.
Many different medications are used to treat ADHD, including stimulants and non-stimulants, says Dr. Mark Stein, principal investigator of the National Institute of Mental Health-funded study and director of the Hyperactivity, Attention, and Learning Problems Clinic at UIC.
“Unfortunately, clinicians are unable to predict in advance who will respond or not respond to a particular medication,” Stein said.
Anorexics attribute meaning to their symptoms
For many patients with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, their self-starvation has real meaning and purpose in their lives. “Therefore, treatments of anorectic behavior which disregard the meaning that the patients attribute to the illness are likely to end in relapses,” lead investigator Dr. Ragnfrid H. Nordbo, of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, told Reuters Health.
Nordbo and colleagues conducted a qualitative study of the perceptions of 18 women with anorexia nervosa. The subjects, who were between 20 and 34 years old, underwent focused, in-depth interviews. The study findings are published in the November issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
“Most anorectic patients regard their illness as meaningful,” Nordbo said.
