ADHD Patch
February 22, 2006
IRVINE, Calif. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- About 8 percent of school age children in America live with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. The behavioral disorder can impair their school work and home life. Now, there's a new way to treat it.
13-year-old Cody Mitchell has lived with ADHD for most of his life. "He would just have outbursts for no reason. Talk nonstop. You couldn't get him to hush," his mom, Kim Mitchell, says.
Cody used to take oral drugs to help his behavior, but Kim says caused unwanted side effects. "There were so many peaks and valleys all the time. He would be less hungry. He didn't want to eat." Now he wears a patch that contains the drug methylphenidate. It gives him constant relief, an appetite and more control.
Sharon
Wigal, Ph.D., says the patch is a good option for kids who can't swallow pills,
and it has another benefit: "You really can't stop the pill once it's
swallowed where as the patch can be removed depending on activities and whatever
needs to happen in terms of that child's life," Dr. Wigal, a clinical
trials director at University of California, Irvine, tells Ivanhoe.
The patch delivers an even flow of medication through the skin to the bloodstream for nine hours. In clinical studies, it was just as effective as oral medication.
"What we saw was that by two hours, we had these significant differences compared to placebo, no medication, and they continued on through 12 hours," Dr. Wigal says.
Cody
sums up how he feels on the patch in one word: Normal. And that's all any kid
can ask for.
The patch, which is changed daily, is the first non-oral medication for ADHD. It was approved by the FDA in December 2005 and will be available this year for patients between ages 6 and 12. Dr. Wigal says side effects were mild but included insomnia and skin reactions.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Sharon Wigal, Ph.D.
UCI Child Development Center
19722 MacArthur Blvd.
Irvine, CA 92612
(949) 824-1833
sbwigal@uci.edu
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.