2024-07-04 05:00:16
On June 28, 2024, in Strasbourg, 8-year-old Victor was being treated for ADHD and was receiving methylphenidate before school. Guillaume Chauvin/Hans Lucas
People born at the end of the year have an increased chance of Taking methylphenidate, a drug used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADHD) with or without ADHD, the three more or less obvious main symptoms of which are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity . There was also an increase in the use of speech therapy care for children at the end of the year. These are the conclusions drawn from numerous studies The study, conducted by Epi-Phare, a scientific interest group composed of health insurance and the National Medicines Safety Agency, was published on June 20.
The study is based on the National Health Data System, which records all births in France. This includes 4.2 million children born in France between the ages of 5 and 10 who enter kindergarten through CE2.
A total of 0.8%, or 38,794 children, were initiated on methylphenidate (Ritaren and generic). 16.5% (692,086 children) received a speech therapy course for speech and learning disorders (53.1/1,000).
Results: From January to December, the number of methylphenidate prescriptions and speech therapy increased regularly based on birth month. Other international studies have highlighted this link for methylphenidate itself, but never in speech therapy.
“The difference in CP is already a lot of eleven months.”
More precisely, among children with the same education level, compared with children born in January, those born in February had a 7% increased risk of taking methylphenidate, those born in April had a 9% increased risk, and those born in December had an increased risk of taking methylphenidate 55%. For speech therapy sessions, use increased from 3% for children born in February to 64% for children born in December.
How to explain these differences? “Methylphenidate and speech therapy are two treatments that may be associated with neuromaturation of the central nervous system in children”recall the six authors. “Less mature, younger children may face excessive demands, especially in their first year of school.”highlighted the press release.
“These data suggest that the school environment, i.e. the way a child is positioned relative to other children in the class, may have an impact on the use of care”Hugo Peyre, a child psychiatrist at Montpellier University Hospital and co-author of the study, explained. “Eleven months apart in first grade is a big deal, especially in terms of language skills and attention skills.”he emphasized.
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