MONTREAL -- For children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder who sleep poorly, methylphenidate (Ritalin) helps make them alert when they are awake.
MedPage Today Action Points
- Explain to patients that methylphenidate (Ritalin) appears to help poor sleepers with ADHD to be more alert and vigilant, but the drug has no effect on vigilance in children with ADHD who are good sleepers.
MONTREAL, Aug. 1 -- For children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder who sleep poorly, methylphenidate (Ritalin) helps make them alert when they are awake.
The drug led to improvements in some measures of vigilance for poor sleepers with ADHD who showed deterioration on the Conners' Continuous Performance Test, found Ridha Joober, M.D., and Reut Gruber, Ph.D., of McGill here, and colleagues.
Methylphenidate had no effect on the performance scores of kids with ADHD who had good sleep efficiency, however, the authors reported in the August issue of the journal Sleep.
"Children with low sleep efficiency might improve performance following the administration of methylphenidate as it increases their arousal level to a moderate level, which is presumed to facilitate vigilance performance," the investigators wrote.
