Bibliographic record
Abstract
Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Clinical & Research NewsFull AccessADHD Symptoms Respond To Cholinergic DrugsChristine LehmannChristine LehmannSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:21 Nov 2003https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.38.22.0025Psychiatric researchers have found that cholinergic medications further improve attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and executive functioning in children treated with stimulants for the ADHD symptoms.The results of several pilot studies on ADHD and deficits in executive functioning were reported at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry meeting in Miami last month.Ritalin Has LimitationsMethylphenidate (Ritalin) is the most commonly used stimulant for ADHD. However, it appears to be less effective in treating mild inattention than severe inattention and selective tasks related to executive functioning, according to researchers from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.For example, children treated with the stimulant improved on certain visual tasks involving memory, storage, and speed of executing a response, but not in blocking out competing stimuli, planning, and recognition memory.The findings highlight the need for adjunctive or alternative medication, according to the researchers.Meanwhile, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston reported on the results of two studies at the AACAP meeting involving cholinergic agents.Both galantamine (Reminyl) and donepezil (Aricept) are used to treat cognitive deficits associated with dementias, Alzheimer’s disease, and psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and autism. Studies have shown that these drugs are effective in improving cognition, memory, and functional abilities, according to Timothy Wilens, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.He told Psychiatric News, “Galantamine directly stimulates nicotinic receptors,” and this stimulation appears to be “essential in improving aspects of cognition relative to executive functioning, including planning, time-management, and organizational skills.”Wilens conducted a retrospective chart review of 13 children and adolescents who were treated mainly with methylphenidate followed by antidepressants and antihypertensives.“All children had been treated with other medications but didn’t adequately respond or couldn’t tolerate the medications,” said Wilens. The mean number of previous medication trials was three.The mean age of the subjects in the case series was 10, and the mean dosage of galantamine was 14 mg twice a day for at least one week.The children were followed for an average of 15 weeks, according to Wilens. No one dropped out because of side effects, which included sleep disturbance, agitation, and gastrointestinal disturbances.Galantamine was effective in improving ADHD symptoms and executive-function deficits by about 23 percent. The effect was statistically significant on ADHD and executive-function measures.More Investigation Called For“The limitations of this study include the use of other concurrent medications, its retrospective nature, and limited outcome measures,” said Wilens.“It remains to be determined whether monotherapy with galantamine will be effective in ADHD and/or executive-function deficits,” he said.Donepezil produced similar improvements in 12 children with residual ADHD and executive-function deficits, but the effect wasn’t statistically significant, according to James Waxmonsky, M.D., a research fellow in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.Wilens plans to investigate further the mechanism of action involving nicotinic receptors. ▪ ISSUES NewArchived
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.064 | 0.016 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".