Stimulant Drugs and Learning Problems

Abstract

This review of stimulant drug research highlights the perennial problem of experimental procedures being prematurely applied despite a lack of proven treatment efficacy. This intriguing area of research is summarized as it relates to learning problems. Critical analysis indicates (a) no satisfactory support for the efficacy of stimulants in improving academic learning and performance or behavior problems, and (b) no data regarding the possibility of long-term negative side effects. Thus, widespread use of drugs for learning problems is seen as premature and, until possible side effects are clarified, perhaps dangerous. Amphetamines adminis-tered to persons with learning problems are seen as producing the common effects usually attributed to such stimulants. These include mild to moderate improvement in nonacademic performance, concomitant reductions in activity, and shortening of response latency on tasks characterized as repetitious, mechanical, regulated by an external agent, and requiring concentration and sustained performance. Evidence has not clarified the generalizability or state dependency of such effects. Complex behavior, such as reasoning, problem solving, and socioemotional functioning, do not seem affected.

The Efficacy of Stimulant Drug Treatment for Hyperactivity

“…A primary problem surrounds the question of how to best summarize disparate findings from different settings, dosages, subject characteristics, and research designs. Previous syntheses of the psychopharmacological literature typically have provided either a narrative integration of selected studies resulting in global efficacy statements (Adelman & Compas 1977, Barkley 1979, Cole 1975, Conners 1971a, 1971b, Sprague & Sleator 1973, Sprague & Werry 1974, Whalen & Henker 1976 or have reduced multifarious findings by means of a "box score" analysis where results are classified by whether they reach a specified level of statistical significance (Barkley 1976, Conners & Rothschild 1968, Lambert, Windmiller, Sandoval, & Moore 1976, Millichap 1973, Millichap & Fowler 1967, Wolraich 1977.…”

Sensory Integration Therapy and Learning Disabilities: A Critique

“…Appetite loss, sleeplessness, irritability, nervousness, stomach aches, increases in heart rate, and blood pressure, reductions in weight gain and reduced growth in stature. (Adelman & Compass 1977) Overall, stimulant drugs has been shown to reduce the level of activity in hyperactive children, enabling them to attend longer and thus f u n c t i o n better intellectually and behaviourally. This effect may also occur with hyperactive children taking the other drugs, commonly prescribed in association with S1 therapy.…”

“…"Given the lack of research demonstrating the efficacy of such treatment and given the very rational concerns that such treatment may have profound long-term negative side effects, it seems evident that the widespread use of such drugs for treatment of learning problems is premature, thus, inappropriate, and perhaps quite dangerous." (Adelman and Compass, 1977; p.401) Clearly, we do not yet know enough about the negative effects of these drugs to justify their use for facilitating the implementation of a therapeutic program that has not been demonstrated to be effective for all LD children. Therapists are cautioned against recommending the use of drugs in association with S1 therapy.…”

Neural Bases of Intelligence and Training

“…It is true that attempts to aid hyperkinetic children with learning problems or retarded children by pharmacological treatments have not demonstrated the value of such therapy (e.g., Adelman & Compas, 1977). Nevertheless, to call such attempts premature suggests that their time will come, and the favorable results mentioned in this section indicate that rapid progress is being made toward the identification of effective pharmacological treatments for certain types of learning disorders.…”