![]() In boys with ADHD, four months of treatment with MPH was associated with increased white matter FA. DTI provides a measure called fractional anisotropy (FA), which is thought to reflect important aspects of white matter such as nerve fiber density, size and myelination-the process of coating nerve fibers to protect the nerve and help it carry signals more efficiently. Before and one week after treatment cessation, the participants underwent MRI including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a technique that helps assess white matter. Patients received either MPH or a placebo for 16 weeks. "But we are the first to study medication-naïve patients in this context, which, of course, is crucial if you want to know how ADHD medications affect the developing brain." ![]() "Previous studies all have tried to statistically control for the effects of ADHD medications," said study senior author Liesbeth Reneman, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. All patients were medication-naïve that is, they had never received MPH prior to the study. To find out more about MPH's effects on white matter development, Dutch researchers performed a study of 50 boys and 49 young adult men diagnosed with ADHD. However, not much is known about its effect on the development of the brain, including the brain's white matter, which is important for learning and brain functions and coordinating communication between different brain regions. Methylphenidate (MPH), sold under trade names including Ritalin and Concerta, is a commonly prescribed treatment for ADHD that is effective in up to 80 percent of patients.
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