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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Clin Psychiatry. 2013 Sep;74(9):902–917. doi: 10.4088/JCP.12r08287

Table 1.

Effect of psychostimulants on brain structure in ADHD

Reference Subjects N Sex Age Range (mean) Design Measure ROIs Principal Findings Summary of Medication Effects
Children + Adolescents
Bledsoe et al., 200927 18 ADHD-RX
13 ADHD-TN
15 HC		 M/F (11)

  • Cross-sectional, Case-controlled

  • Naturalistic dosing with “stimulants” for > 1yr

 area Total Verm, Ant Verm, Post Sup Verm, Post InfVerm

  1. HC, ADHD-RX > ADHD-TN for Post InfVerm

 RX associated with normalization of Post InfVerm, no other ROIs were smaller in ADHD-TN
Castellanos et al., 200226 103 ADHD-RX
49 ADHD-TN
139 HC		 M/F 4–19 (10)

  • Cross-sectional, Case-controlled

  • Naturalistic dosing with “stimulants”

 volume TCV, TGM, TWM, FGM, PGM, TeGM, OGM, FWM, PWM, TeWM, OWM, Cau, Cblm

  1. HC >ADHD-TN, ADHD-RX for GM volumes, Cau, Cblm, TCV

  2. HC, ADHD-RX > ADHD-TN for all WM volumes

 RX associated with WM normalization, but no effect in TCV, or in GM volumes including Cblm and Cau
Pliszka et al., 200624 16 ADHD-RX
14 ADHD-TN
21 HC		 M/F 9–15 (13)

  • Cross-sectional, Case-controlled

  • Naturalistic dosing with “stimulants” for > 1yr

  • ADHD-RX: Washed out, but no length mentioned

 volume Cau, ACC

  1. HC > ADHD-RX, ADHD-TN for L and R Cau

  2. HC, ADHD-RX > ADHD-TN for R ACC

  3. HC > ADHD-TN for L ACC (trend)

 RX associated with right ACC normalization, but no effect in Cau
Schnoebele n et al., 201023 12 ADHD-RX
13 ADHD-TN
15 HC		 M/F 9–16 (13)

  • Cross-sectional, Case-controlled

  • Naturalistic dosing with “stimulants” for > 1 yr

  • ADHD-RX: washed out, but no length mentioned

 volume Overall CC, 5 subregions including Genu, Splenium

  1. No sig group diffs for overall CC or subregions

  2. HC > ADHD-TN in splenium

 RX history associated with subtle attenuation of reduced splenium volume reported previously
Shaw et al., 200922 19 ADHD-RXnc
24 ADHD-RX
294 HC (template)		 M/F 9–20 (T1: 13 T2: 16)

  • Case-controlled, Longitudinal

  • Naturalistic dosing

  • Scans ~4 yrs apart

 cortical thickness vertices across the whole cortex

  1. HC, ADHD-RXnc> ADHD-RX for rate of cortical thinning in L MFG/IFG, R PreCG, and R Par/Occip regions

 RX associated with normalized rate of change in thickness across several cortical regions
Sobel et al., 201025 31 ADHD-RX
16 ADHD-TN
57 HC		 M/F 7–18 (12)

  • Cross-sectional, Case-controlled

  • Naturalistic dosing with “stimulants”, mean duration = 43.3 mos

  • ADHD-RX: No washout for scan

  1. volume

  2. surface morphology

 Cau, Put, GP

  1. HC > ADHD-ALL in Put

  2. No diagnosis or med effect on conventional volumes in Caud/GP

  3. HC > ADHD-RX > ADHD-TN for surface deformations in Caud, Put, GP

 RX associated with attenuation of BG surface deformations

ABBREVIATIONS: ACC: Anterior cingulate cortex; ADHD-RX: ADHD subjects treated with a stimulant medication; ADHD-RXnc: ADHD subjects not currently treated with psychostimulants; ADHD-TN: Stimulant naïve ADHD subjects; Ant: Anterior; BG: Basal ganglia; Cau: Caudate; Cblm: Cerebellum; CC: Corpus Callosum; FGM: Frontal gray matter; FWM: Frontal white matter; GM: Gray matter; GP: Globus Pallidus; HC: Healthy control subjects; IFG: Inferior frontal gyrus; Inf: Inferior; MFG: Middle frontal gyrus; Occ: Occipital; OGM: Occipital gray matter; OWM: Occipital white matter; Par: Parietal; PGM: Parietal gray matter; Post: Posterior; PreCG: PrecentralGyrus; Put: Putamen; PWM: Parietal white matter; R: right; ROI: Region of interest; RX: Treatment; Sup: Superior; TCV: Total cerebral volume; TeGM: Temporal gray matter; TeWM: Temporal white matter; TGM: Total gray matter; TWM: Total white matter; TX: Treatment; Verm: Cerebellar Vermis; WM: White matter.