Drug Effects on Learning in Children A Selective Review of the Past Thirty Years

Fréeman, Roger D.

doi:10.1177/002246696600100104

Cited by 51 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 107 publications

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“…As previously suggested (Barkley 1977, Conners & Werry 1979, Wender 1971, Whalen & Henker 1976, stimulant drugs are effective for the treatment of hyperactivity. All major drugs appeared effective with the exception of caffeine, which supported previous reports indicating that caffeine is the least effective stimulant (Conners & Werry 1979, Freeman 1966, Ross & Ross 1976 between methylphenidate and caffeine. With the exception of caffeine, these findings indicated little to choose from among the most popular stimulant drugs and no support for methylphenidate being the preferred stimulant on the basis of greater efficacy (Krager & Safer 1974).…”

Section: Findings: Effects Of Stimulant Drug Typessupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Because placebo control is considered essential for drug research, the difference between ES measurements obtained from placebo controlled (n = 805) studies (ES = .562) and studies (n = 169) without placebo control (ES = .628) was assessed but found not significant, F (1, 982) = 1.1, p = .30. The ES difference (.066) can be considered an approximate index of the "placebo effect," which is well below the values reported in the literature, which cluster around 35% (Beecher 1955, Freeman 1966, Sroufe 1975) since the present findings indicated that the placebo effect accounted for only 3% of the improvement shown by drug-treated subjects.…”

Section: Design Variablescontrasting

confidence: 80%

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The Efficacy of Stimulant Drug Treatment for Hyperactivity

Kavale

1982

J Learn Disabil

140

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This investigation reviews 135 studies examining the efficacy of stimulant drug treatment for hyperactivity. Meta-analysis, the analysis of analyses, is the methodological procedure used to integrate research findings. General findings indicate positive effects for drug intervention. In addition, subsets of data illustrating important behavioral, cognitive, and physiological outcomes were examined. Finally, variation among studies in terms of study features, subject characteristics, and design variables were investigated. Findings were compared and contrasted with previous reviews and showed that the extant literature provides a basis for concluding that stimulant drugs are an effective treatment for hyperactivity.

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Section: Findings: Effects Of Stimulant Drug Typessupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Design Variablescontrasting

confidence: 80%

The Efficacy of Stimulant Drug Treatment for Hyperactivity

Kavale

1982

J Learn Disabil

140

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“…In a leview of the amphetamines, Freeman (1966) came to the conclusion that it is not yet possible to state with any certainty what effect these drugs have on learning in children. Dextro-amphetamine was found to have no effect on the memory and complex task performance of a group of children with learning disabilities and school behaviour problems (Conners, Eisenberg and Barcai, 1967).…”

Section: Hyperactivity In Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustained Attention in Hyperactive Children*

Sykes

Douglas

Morgenstern

1973

Child Psychology Psychiatry

224

106

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The ability of the hyperactive child to maintain attention on three tasks was examined. One of the tasks, a Choice Reaction Time Task, measured attention for brief periods, while the other two measured sustained attention. Of the latter two, one was an experimenterpaced task(the Continuous Performance Test) and the other a self-paced task(the SeriaI Reaction Task) .It was found that the hyperactive children were no different from the normal controls in their ability to direct their attention for brief periods. They were however, significantly inferior to uhe controls in their ability to sustain attention, particularly on the experimenter-paced task. The effect of the stimulant drug methylphenidate was evaluated and found to be effective in improving performance on aIl three tests. Implications of these findings for the education of hyperactive children were discussed.

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“…36-37). Of the controlled studies reviewed which dealt with the effects of a Volume 9, Number 2, February, 1976 number of different drugs, the reviewer found that 21 showed no improvement in behavior while 22 showed positive increments; of the studies which assessed improvements in learning, 10 were able to demonstrate positive gains, 19 showed no improvement, and three yielded mixed results (Freeman 1966). Millichap (1968) found that even though there were no satisfactory explanations of the mechanisms by which the drugs acted, 84% of the cases he examined showed improvement after periods of from one week to four years of between five and 200 mg of Ritalin per day; 69% of those taking amphetamines of between 2.5 and 40 mg per day for the same period also showed improvements; no mention of academic performances was made.…”

Section: Drug Therapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Attention and Learning Disordered Children: A Review of Theory and Remediation

Harris¹

1976

J Learn Disabil

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This is a review of the pivotal position accorded attentional deficits in explaining the inferior school-related performances of the mild-tomoderate LD, ED, and MR child. Problems in defining attention are discussed and an operational definition is given which lists those behaviors commonly associated with (7) adaptation to classroom environments, which lead to (2),correct student responses to pertinent, task-relevant stimuli. Orientation response and stimulus selection theories are summarized, and three common methods of remediation -drug therapy, reduced environmental stimulation, and operant conditioning -are examined to determine their efficacy. While each method was found to reduce maladaptive behaviors (e.q., motor restlessness, eyes and ears involved off-task, irrelevant talking), none of them lead to significant increases in correct academic work. Several interpretations of this finding and its import for special educators are listed.

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Drug Effects on Learning in Children A Selective Review of the Past Thirty Years

Cited by 51 publications

References 107 publications

The Efficacy of Stimulant Drug Treatment for Hyperactivity

The Efficacy of Stimulant Drug Treatment for Hyperactivity

Sustained Attention in Hyperactive Children*

Attention and Learning Disordered Children: A Review of Theory and Remediation

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