Pharmacological treatment of adult ADHD

Abstract

This article reviews recent advances in the pharmacological treatment of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), focusing on the literature of the last 18 months. Recent works highlight the growing number of treatment options and focus on the effects of pharmacological treatment in special areas of adult ADHD including emotional dysregulation, social functioning or driving performance. Significant clinical improvement was demonstrated in special subgroups, for example, in substance dependent or prison populations with adult ADHD. In our earlier meta-analysis, we estimated the effect size for the pharmacotherapy of adult ADHD in short-term placebo-controlled studies to be in the medium-to-high range (Cohen-d = 0.65). We now replicate these results with the help of most recent studies: stimulants had greater efficacy than nonstimulants. Recent studies are consistent with prior reports and indicated that pharmacological treatment of adult ADHD is effective in improving symptoms and other domains, such as social dysfunction, functional impairment and executive functions. Furthermore, we calculated effect sizes from the most recent studies and they are almost identical with prior estimates, and in terms of Cohen-d typically indicate medium-to-high effect sizes for the pharmacotherapy of adult ADHD.