Efficacy of adding acupuncture to Methylphenidate in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A randomized clinical trial

Abstract Introduction Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent finding in children with behavioral issues. It has been shown that acupuncture, as a complementary medicine, may have some beneficial effects in ADHD treatment; however, the available evidence of its effectiveness are inadequate. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment in patients with ADHD. Methods This double blind randomized sham controlled trial was conducted on patients with confirmed ADHD referred to Ibn-e-Sina Psychiatric Hospital, Mashhad, Iran between January 2017 and June 2017. Patients were randomly allocated into either an acupuncture (experimental group) or a sham acupuncture (control group). All patients received a standard treatment of 0.3–1 mg/kg of Methylphenidate (Ritalin) in 2 or 3 divided doses. Within 4 weeks the intervention group received acupuncture treatment 3 times a week. Sham acupuncture was used for the control group within the same duration as acupuncture group. The treatment outcomes were measured using home version of ADHD-rating scale (RS) and the Continuous Performance Test after 3 weeks. Independent-samples t -test, Pearson Chi-square test, and Paired-samples t -test were used for data analysis with SPSS version 16.0. Results This study was conducted on 59 patients (52 males) with a mean age of 10.64 ± 2.46 years in two groups of experiment (n = 31) and control (n = 28). ADHD-RS total score was significantly more decreased in acupuncture group after 3 weeks (-6.29 ± 7.1 vs. -1.96 ± 6.7; p = 0.007). Also, the hyperactivity and impulsivity was significantly more decreased in the acupuncture group compared to the sham control group (-3.29 ± 3.7 vs. -0.45 ± 4.1; p = 0.005). Furthermore, acupuncture did not considerably change Omission error, Commission error, Reaction Time and Correct hit (p u003e 0.05). Conclusion Our study showed that acupuncture can significantly improve the parent-report ADHD-RS. Nevertheless, it did not improve the attention deficit. We recommend further investigations with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up. The adverse effects of acupuncture on ADHD patients were not assessed in this study, but should be measured in future studies.