NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In a new study testing the efficacy of atomoxetine in young children with ADHD, kids on the drug improved on some measures of inattention and hyperactivity, but most were still significantly impaired at the end of 8 weeks. The results are published in Pediatrics.

Treatment with atomoxetine is off-label in kids younger than six, but the drug, marketed as Strattera, is still commonly used to treat preschoolers. However, little research has been done on the drug in kids six and younger.

Researchers led by Dr. Christopher Kratochvil of the University of Nebraska Medical Center conducted a double blind randomized controlled trial of 101 five and six-year olds with ADHD, assigned to either atomoxetine or a placebo.

The mean age of kids in the study was 6.1 years. Sixty-eight percent were male, and 86% were white.

Kids in the study visited with investigators at four weekly and one bi-weekly session, which included both psychoeducation and behavioral management strategizing. Those kids taking atomoxetine were started on a dose of 0.5 mg/kg per day, with pharmacotherapists increasing the dose up to 1.8 mg/kg per day as they saw fit.

A total of 93 kids took at least one dose of medication and were included in the analysis.

After 8 weeks, kids taking atomoxetine had significantly improved on parent (P = 0.009) and teacher (P = 0.02) ADHD-IV Rating Scale total scores compared to those assigned to the placebo. The atomoxetine group also improved on hyperactivity and inattentive subscales for the parent score and on the inattentive subscale for the teacher score.

By the end of the study, 40% of kids in the atomoxetine group were much or very much improved according to the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale, compared to 22% of those in the placebo group, a difference which was not significant. And according to that same scale, 62% of kids taking atomoxetine were still