It’s a finding that’s catching parents off guard – a large South Korean study tracking thousands of children found that those treated with methylphenidate (commonly known as Ritalin) had about 60% higher odds of being overweight or obese by their early twenties. But before you panic about your child’s prescription, you need to understand what this actually means for your family. The relationship between ADHD medication and weight is surprisingly complex… early on, these stimulants typically suppress appetite and slow weight gain, which is why your child might eat less at lunch. Yet over the years, many kids not only catch up but may overshoot into higher adult BMI, especially with longer cumulative exposure. And here’s where it gets tricky – ADHD itself, completely separate from medication, is already linked to disordered eating, impulsivity around food, and sedentary habits that drive obesity risk, so untangling cause from effect isn’t straightforward.
Key Takeaways:
- The link between childhood methylphenidate and adult obesity is real but modest – we’re talking about a 60% increase in odds, which sounds scary until you realise the absolute risk is still pretty small and way less influential than things like family eating habits, activity levels, and sleep patterns. Studies show a pattern in which kids initially lose appetite and weight on the medication, then catch up during adolescence, and in some cases overshoot into higher BMI by their early twenties, but not every study finds this, and the effect varies a lot between individuals.
- ADHD itself is a major player in obesity risk, completely separate from medication. Kids and adults with ADHD struggle with impulsive eating, emotional regulation around food, staying active consistently, and maintaining good sleep – all of which drive weight gain regardless of whether they’ve ever taken a stimulant. So when you see headlines linking methylphenidate to obesity, you’re looking at a tangle of factors where the medication is just one thread, not the whole story.
- The appetite suppression you see early on doesn’t last forever, and that’s where things get complicated. In the first 6-12 months on methylphenidate, many kids eat less and gain weight more slowly… but then their bodies adapt. Some research suggests this early suppression might trigger metabolic compensation or rebound eating later, especially if the medication is reduced or stopped during adolescence, which could explain why some cohorts show higher adult weight despite starting lighter.
- Growth monitoring is already standard practice and becomes even more important with this emerging data. Clinicians are supposed to track weight, height, and BMI regularly throughout treatment – particularly in the first couple of years and around puberty – so any concerning patterns get caught early. If a child’s growth curve flattens or their weight rebounds sharply, there are practical options: adjusting dose timing, trying medication holidays on weekends or school breaks, switching to non-stimulant ADHD meds, or bringing in dietetic and lifestyle support.
- Don’t let obesity headlines push you into stopping effective ADHD treatment without talking to your prescriber first. Methylphenidate remains first-line because it works – it improves focus, academic performance, safety (fewer accidents and injuries), and quality of life in ways that untreated ADHD simply can’t match. Any potential long-term BMI risk has to be weighed against those huge benefits and against the obesity risk that untreated ADHD itself carries through impulsivity, inactivity and disordered eating.
What’s the Buzz About ADHD and Methylphenidate?
The Study That Started the Conversation
A mother in Seoul walks into her pediatrician’s office clutching a news alert on her phone. Her 8-year-old has been on methylphenidate for two years, and now she’s reading that it might make him obese as an adult. Should she stop the medication? It’s exactly this kind of panic that researchers hoped to avoid when they published their findings – but here we are.
The study causing all this worry came out of South Korea in 2026, and it’s actually pretty solid work. Researchers followed thousands of children who’d been diagnosed with ADHD before puberty and checked in on them when they hit their early twenties – specifically between ages 20 and 25. What they found was… complicated.
Kids with ADHD who took methylphenidate had about 60% higher odds of being overweight or obese in young adulthood compared to their peers without ADHD. That sounds scary, right? The adjusted odds ratio was around 1.6, which, in research-speak, means a modest but real association.
But here’s where it gets interesting. The longer kids stayed on the medication – we’re talking 1 to 4 years or more of cumulative exposure – the higher their average adult BMI climbed within the ADHD group. They were also slightly shorter as adults, though the height difference was small enough that clinicians didn’t consider it a major red flag.
This is the study behind those alarming headlines you’ve been seeing. And honestly? It deserves attention… but not panic.
What Happens Over the Long Haul
The South Korean study isn’t working in isolation. We’ve actually been tracking this pattern for years through something called the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD – the MTA for short. Over roughly 16 years of follow-up, researchers watched what happened to kids who stayed on stimulant medication consistently.
The results showed a similar trend: slightly reduced adult height, and increased adult weight and BMI compared to both minimally medicated ADHD peers and kids without ADHD altogether.
A 2023 systematic review pulled together data from multiple studies of stimulant-treated children and found this weird two-phase pattern. Early on – like in the first several months – stimulants often crush appetite and slow weight gain. Parents notice their kids picking at dinner, skipping snacks, and losing that puppy fat.
Then something shifts.
Over longer follow-up periods, many of these cohorts show catch-up growth. The kids start eating again, their weight climbs back toward normal… and in some groups, it keeps climbing. Some studies show higher adult BMI in consistently treated groups, suggesting an overshoot effect.
Several clinic-based studies that tracked kids longitudinally found early weight loss or slowed gain in the first 6 to 12 months on methylphenidate. But by 1-2 years out? Group differences in weight often disappeared entirely. So you get this accordion effect – squeeze down, spring back, and sometimes spring a little too far.
Why Might This Be Happening?
Nobody’s claiming we’ve cracked the code here. What we have are educated guesses – hypotheses that make biological sense but haven’t been proven as clear causal pathways.
First up: brain chemistry. Methylphenidate bumps up dopamine and noradrenaline in your child’s brain, which is exactly why it helps with focus and impulse control. But those same neurotransmitters can initially dampen appetite and, over time, mess with the brain’s reward circuitry. Interestingly, researchers have actually experimented with methylphenidate for weight loss in adults with obesity because it can suppress appetite and reduce intake of fats and carbohydrates. So the drug clearly has metabolic effects beyond just treating ADHD symptoms.
Then there’s the rebound theory. When a growing child’s appetite is suppressed, and weight gain slows, the body might…
So, What’s the Connection to Obesity?
Picture your child at eight years old, starting methylphenidate. Within weeks, you notice they’re picking at their lunch, complaining they’re not hungry. Fast forward fifteen years – they’re 23, and their BMI has crept into the overweight range. Is the medication to blame? The answer, frustratingly, is “sort of… but it’s complicated.”
What the Big Studies Actually Show
A massive South Korean study published in 2026 tracked thousands of children who were diagnosed with ADHD before puberty and checked in on them when they hit their early twenties. The findings made headlines for good reason: young adults who’d taken methylphenidate as kids had about 60% higher odds of being overweight or obese compared to peers without ADHD. That sounds alarming until you dig into the numbers – we’re talking an adjusted odds ratio around 1.6, which epidemiologists would call “modest.”
The researchers also noticed something else. Kids who’d been on the medication longer – say, four years or more – tended to have higher adult BMIs than those with shorter exposures. And yes, there was a slight height difference too, though small enough that your doctor probably wouldn’t flag it as clinically significant.
This is where those scary headlines are coming from.
But here’s what makes this tricky: the pattern isn’t straightforward cause-and-effect. The landmark Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA) followed kids for about 16 years and found similar trends – consistently medicated children ended up slightly shorter and heavier as adults compared to kids with ADHD who took minimal medication, and compared to kids without ADHD at all.
The Weight Rollercoaster Nobody Warns You About
So what’s actually happening to your child’s weight over time? A 2023 systematic review pulled together data from dozens of studies and found a pattern that’ll sound familiar if you’ve been through it…
In the first 6-12 months on methylphenidate, most kids lose their appetite and either lose weight or gain it more slowly than expected. You’re packing extra snacks, worrying about whether they ate anything at school, maybe even considering stopping the medication because they’ve dropped a trouser size.
Then something shifts. Between years one and two, many kids start catching up. Their weight normalises, the differences between medicated and non-medicated kids often disappear, and you breathe a sigh of relief.
But in some cohorts – not all, but enough to show up in large datasets – there’s a third act. By young adulthood, the weight trajectory doesn’t just catch up… it overshoots. The same kids who were underweight at nine are now carrying extra pounds at twenty-three.
It’s this U-shaped curve that researchers are trying to make sense of.
Why Might This Happen? (The Theories)
Nobody knows for certain, and that’s worth stating upfront. What we have are educated guesses based on how methylphenidate works and what we see in the data.
Your child’s brain chemistry is changing. Methylphenidate boosts dopamine and noradrenaline – that’s how it helps with focus and impulse control. But those same neurotransmitters also regulate appetite and reward processing. In adults with obesity, methylphenidate actually suppresses appetite and reduces cravings for fats and carbs (which is why researchers have tested it experimentally for weight loss). So the medication is definitely affecting the brain’s reward circuits, and those changes might play out differently over a child’s development than over a few months in an adult trial.
Then there’s the rebound theory. When you suppress a child’s appetite for months or years during key growth windows, their body might… remember. Some researchers think the early appetite suppression triggers compensatory mechanisms – either metabolic adaptations or psychological patterns around food – that kick in later, especially if the medication is reduced or stopped during adolescence or young adulthood. Those weight trajectories that dip, level off, then climb? That
My Take on the Latest Research
What the Numbers Actually Tell Us
So here’s where things get interesting – and a bit complicated. The ADHD and Methylphenidate Use in Prepubertal Children and… study that’s driving most of these headlines followed a massive cohort of South Korean kids who were diagnosed before puberty, then checked back in when they hit their early twenties. What they found was that young adults who’d been treated with methylphenidate had about 60% higher odds of being overweight or obese compared to peers without ADHD – that’s an adjusted odds ratio hovering around 1.6.
These same young adults were also slightly shorter, though the height difference was pretty small in practical terms. And here’s the kicker: kids who’d been on methylphenidate for longer stretches – say, 1 to 4 years or more – ended up with the highest average BMI in young adulthood within the ADHD group.
But before you panic, let’s put that 60% number in context. It sounds scary, right? Except odds ratios can be misleading when you’re talking about relatively uncommon outcomes or modest absolute differences. We’re seeing a signal here, not a smoking gun.
The Pattern That Keeps Showing Up
This isn’t the first time researchers have spotted this trend. The Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD – the MTA, which followed kids for about 16 years – found something similar. Children who stayed on medication consistently ended up slightly shorter and had higher adult weight and BMI compared to kids with ADHD who took less medication and compared to kids without ADHD altogether.
A 2023 systematic review pulled together what we know about stimulants and growth, and the story it tells is weirdly U-shaped. Early on – like in the first 6 to 12 months – stimulants typically squash appetite and slow down weight gain. Parents notice their kids picking at meals, and the scale reflects it.
Then something shifts. Over the next year or two, most kids catch up. Weight differences between medicated and unmedicated groups often disappear entirely. But… in some cohorts, especially those followed into young adulthood, you see an overshoot. The early weight suppression gives way to catch-up, and then in some cases, kids end up heavier than they would have been otherwise.
It’s not happening to everyone, and it’s not huge when it does happen. But the pattern is real enough that we can’t just wave it away.
Why Might This Be Happening?
Nobody knows for sure – and that’s an honest answer, not a cop-out. But there are some plausible theories floating around, and it’s worth walking through them because they help explain why this isn’t as simple as “medication makes you fat.”
First up: brain chemistry. Methylphenidate works by boosting dopamine and noradrenaline, which is exactly why it helps with focus and impulse control. But those same neurotransmitters also regulate appetite and reward processing. Early on, that dopamine bump can dampen hunger – it’s why some adults with obesity have been given methylphenidate experimentally to help them eat less fat and carbs.
But here’s where it gets tricky. Altering your brain’s reward circuitry over the years might change how you relate to food long-term. Some researchers think that early appetite suppression could trigger compensatory eating later, like your body’s trying to make up for lost time once the medication wears off or the dose stabilises. Others point to potential metabolic adaptations that happen when growth is slowed during critical windows.
Then there’s the rebound hypothesis. Several cohorts show weight trajectories that dip during early treatment, level out in adolescence, then diverge upward in adulthood among kids who stayed medicated. It
Isn’t It All a Bit Confusing?
When the Data Seems to Point in Every Direction
You’d think by now we’d have a straight answer. Your child loses weight on methylphenidate at first, then maybe catches up, then… might end up heavier as an adult? Meanwhile, half the studies say there’s a problem, and the other half shrug and say “we didn’t see much.” It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin.
The truth is, the evidence really is mixed, and that’s not just me trying to dodge the question. Different studies follow different kids for different lengths of time, adjust for different factors, and reach genuinely different conclusions. Some of that’s just how science works when you’re trying to track something as complex as growth over 15 or 20 years.
Is that South Korean cohort showing 60% higher odds of being overweight or obese in young adulthood? That’s a big, carefully controlled dataset, following kids from before puberty into their early twenties. It’s solid work. But then you’ve got plenty of shorter-term studies – six months, a year, even two years – that show the initial weight dip from appetite suppression and then… nothing much. Kids bounce back to where they’d be anyway, and the groups look pretty similar.
The Pattern That Keeps Showing Up (Sort Of)
What we see across multiple studies is a trajectory that goes something like this: medication starts, appetite drops, and weight gain slows or stalls for the first 6 to 12 months. Parents worry. Pediatricians monitor closely. Then, somewhere in the second year or into adolescence, things level out. The weight “catches up.”
But – and this is where it gets interesting – in some cohorts, especially those followed all the way into adulthood, that catch-up doesn’t just meet the original trajectory. It overshoots.
The MTA study, which is one of the longest and most rigorous ADHD treatment trials we have, tracked kids for about 16 years. What they found was that children who stayed on stimulants consistently ended up slightly shorter and heavier as adults compared to kids with ADHD who took less medication and compared to kids without ADHD altogether. Not drastically – we’re talking modest differences – but consistent enough to notice.
So you’ve got this weird U-shaped story. Down at the start, back up in the middle, and then potentially higher than expected at the end. Except… not in every study.
Why Don’t All the Studies Agree?
Part of the confusion comes down to how long researchers actually follow the kids. If you only track them for 18 months, you’re probably going to catch the appetite-suppression phase and maybe the early rebound, but you’ll miss whatever happens in late adolescence or early adulthood. Many shorter-term studies conclude there’s no lasting effect on BMI because they literally aren’t looking long enough to see it.
Then there’s the question of who you’re comparing against. Some studies compare medicated ADHD kids to non-medicated ADHD kids. Others compare them to kids without ADHD at all. Those are very different baselines, because ADHD itself is linked to higher obesity risk – more impulsive eating, worse sleep, more sedentary screen time, the whole package.
A 2023 narrative review tried to pull all this together and basically concluded that most studies don’t find a clear, consistent link between when you start stimulants and long-term changes in height, weight, or BMI. “Heterogeneity” is the polite academic word for “it’s all over the place.”
What Might Be Going On Under the Hood
Even though we can’t say for certain that methylphenidate causes higher adult weight, researchers have floated some plausible mechanisms – think of these as educated guesses rather than proven pathways.
First, there’s the neurobiology angle. Methylphenidate works by boosting dopamine and noradrenaline in your child’s brain,
Who’s at Risk? Understanding Factors
Picture two kids, both diagnosed with ADHD at age seven, both prescribed methylphenidate. One takes it consistently through high school, the other stops after two years. Fast forward to their early twenties – will their weight trajectories look the same? The short answer is… maybe not, and that’s where things get interesting.
Duration of Treatment Matters (Probably)
Your child’s cumulative exposure to methylphenidate appears to be one of the strongest predictors we’ve seen so far. That big South Korean study? It found that kids who stayed on the medication for 1-4 years or more had the highest mean adult BMI within the ADHD group. Not just slightly higher – the highest.
But here’s where it gets messy. The Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD followed kids for about 16 years and found that consistently medicated children ended up with increased adult weight and BMI compared to both minimally medicated ADHD peers and kids without ADHD. So duration seems to matter, but it’s not a straight line.
Some kids take breaks – summers off, weekends, growth spurts. Others never miss a dose. Your prescriber probably calls these “drug holidays,” and they might actually play a role in how your child’s metabolism adapts over time.
The Age Factor
Starting methylphenidate before puberty – which is when most kids begin treatment – puts your child’s body in a unique position. Their growth trajectory and metabolic programming are still being established, and appetite suppression during these critical years might trigger compensatory mechanisms later on.
That 2023 narrative review found something surprising, though: most studies don’t show a clear link between age at start and lasting changes in height, weight or BMI. Which tells you just how much individual variation there is. Your nine-year-old might respond completely differently from your neighbour’s eleven-year-old, even on the same dose.
ADHD Itself Is Part of the Equation
And this is the part that gets glossed over in scary headlines.
ADHD is independently associated with disordered eating, sedentary behaviour, sleep problems and emotional impulsivity – all of which drive obesity risk, whether your child ever touches a stimulant or not. Kids with untreated ADHD often struggle with:
- Impulsive snacking and difficulty recognizing fullness cues
- Screen time that crowds out physical activity
- Sleep disruption that throws hunger hormones out of whack
- Emotional eating as a way to self-soothe
- Executive function challenges that make meal planning and structured eating nearly impossible
Families dealing with chronic ADHD symptoms face higher stress, more chaotic mealtimes, and less bandwidth for the kind of consistent routines that protect against weight gain. So when you see “ADHD kids on medication have higher adult BMI,” you have to ask – compared to what? Compared to neurotypical kids? That’s not a fair comparison. Compared to untreated ADHD kids? Now we’re getting somewhere.
Your Child’s Unique Biology
Methylphenidate works by increasing dopamine and noradrenaline, which initially dampens appetite but also alters your child’s reward circuitry. Some kids experience profound appetite suppression and drop percentiles in the first 6-12 months. Others? Barely notice a difference.
That early appetite suppression might trigger compensatory eating or metabolic adaptations later – think of it as your child’s body trying to “catch up” once medication is reduced or stopped. Some cohorts show weight trajectories that dip during early treatment, converge in adolescence, and then diverg
What Can Parents Do? Tips for Monitoring
Many parents think monitoring just means stepping on the scale at each doctor’s visit. But tracking your child’s growth while they’re on methylphenidate is actually way more nuanced than that… and honestly, way more useful when you do it right.
Your pediatrician or psychiatrist should already be plotting weight, height, and BMI on growth charts at every medication review, especially during that critical first 1-2 years of treatment and again when puberty kicks in. Those aren’t just numbers on a page – they’re telling a story about how your child’s body is responding to the medication over time.
What to Watch For (and When)
The first six to twelve months? That’s when you’ll probably notice your child isn’t as hungry. Maybe they’re picking at lunch, skipping snacks they used to love, or just seeming less interested in food overall. This appetite suppression is super common and usually temporary, but it’s also the window where weight gain can slow down or even stall.
So during this phase, you want to pay attention to:
- Timing of doses – is the medication peaking right at mealtimes and killing their appetite?
- Quality over quantity – if they’re eating less, are they at least getting nutrient-dense foods when they do eat?
- Growth velocity – are they still moving along their usual percentile curve, or has the line flattened?
- Energy levels – are they active and engaged, or seeming tired and low?
After that first year, things often level out. Weight typically catches up, and many kids return to their baseline growth trajectory. But here’s where the longer-term picture matters – and why those cumulative exposure numbers from the South Korean study are worth discussing with your prescriber.
The Practical Stuff You Can Do at Home
You don’t need to turn into a calorie-counting hawk, but a few simple habits can make a real difference.
First, structure matters – and I mean that in the least rigid way possible. Kids with ADHD already struggle with routine, and when you add medication that messes with hunger cues, regular meal and snack times become even more important. Not because you’re forcing food, but because you’re creating predictable windows when their body knows to expect fuel.
Breakfast is tricky because most families give the morning dose before school, and by the time it kicks in, appetite is gone. Some parents have found success with a protein-rich breakfast *before* the dose, or a smoothie their child can sip on the way to school. Others do “medication holidays” on weekends to let appetite rebound – but that’s a conversation to have with your prescriber, not a DIY experiment.
Second, sleep and activity aren’t separate issues from weight – they’re deeply connected. ADHD itself is linked to sleep problems, and stimulants can make that worse if dosing or timing isn’t right. Poor sleep drives weight gain through hormonal pathways (hello, cortisol and ghrelin) and also makes kids reach for quick-energy carbs the next day.
And movement? Kids on effective ADHD treatment are often *more* active because they can finally focus enough to participate in sports or play. But if your child is spending hours on screens or in sedentary hyperfocus, that’s worth addressing – not because of the medication, but because sedentary behavior is a major obesity driver regardless.
Questions to Bring to Your Next Appointment
You’re the expert on your child’s day-to-day life, and your observations matter. Don’t wait for the prescriber to ask – come prepared with specifics.
Conclusion
Considering all points, you might walk away thinking methylphenidate simply causes obesity in adulthood – but that’s way too simplistic. The reality is much messier and honestly more interesting. Yes, large cohort studies show kids with ADHD who took methylphenidate have about 60% higher odds of being overweight or obese by their early twenties… but that doesn’t mean the medication alone is the villain here. Because ADHD itself carries independent obesity risk through impulsivity, disordered eating, sleep problems and lifestyle factors that have nothing to do with pills. And the effect size? It’s modest – far smaller than what you’d see from sedentary behaviour or family eating patterns.What you’re really seeing is a complex interplay. Early on, methylphenidate suppresses appetite and slows weight gain – parents notice their child eating less at lunch, maybe losing a bit of weight in the first year. But then something shifts. Many kids catch up, their weight trajectories converge with peers… and in some cohorts, especially those on longer cumulative treatment, adult BMI actually overshoots. Whether that’s metabolic rebound, compensatory eating when the drug wears off, or the brain’s reward circuitry adapting over years – we don’t fully know yet. The MTA study showed this pattern clearly over 16 years, but shorter trials often found no lasting difference at all.So where does that leave you if your child is on methylphenidate or you’re considering it? Don’t panic and don’t stop effective treatment based on a headline. The benefits – better focus, safer behaviour, reduced injury risk, improved school and social outcomes – are substantial and well proven. But do use this information as a reason to stay engaged with monitoring. Ask your prescriber about growth charts at every review, watch for sharp weight rebounds, talk about sleep hygiene and family meal structure, and keep physical activity on the radar. Methylphenidate isn’t a weight‑loss drug or an obesity driver in isolation – it’s one piece of your child’s health puzzle, and you can shape the rest of that picture with informed, proactive support.
FAQQ: So if my child takes methylphenidate for ADHD, does that mean they’re definitely going to be overweight as an adult?
A: Here’s where a lot of parents get scared by the headlines – but no, it’s not that straightforward. A big South Korean study found that kids with ADHD who took methylphenidate had about 60% higher odds of being overweight or obese in their early twenties compared to peers without ADHD. That sounds scary, right? But odds ratios can be misleading when you’re talking about modest absolute risks. What the research actually shows is an association, not a guarantee. And the effect size is pretty small compared to the usual suspects behind obesity – diet quality, family eating patterns, physical activity, sleep. Plus, ADHD itself is linked to higher obesity risk even without medication, because of impulsivity around food, emotional eating, and less structured routines.The pattern researchers see goes something like this: methylphenidate often suppresses appetite in the first 6-12 months, so kids might eat less and gain weight more slowly. Then over time – sometimes years – many kids catch up. But in some groups who stayed on medication long-term, their adult BMI ended up a bit higher than you’d expect. Why? Maybe compensatory eating after appetite comes back, maybe metabolic adaptation, maybe it’s the ADHD symptoms themselves when medication wears off each day.Bottom line: there’s a signal in the data, but it’s one piece of a much bigger puzzle. Your child’s individual trajectory will depend on so many things – their eating habits, activity level, sleep, how their ADHD affects their daily life, family patterns. It’s not a done deal.
Q: Why would a medication that kills your appetite end up making you gain weight later? That doesn’t make sense.
A: Yeah, it does seem backwards at first. Parents often notice their kid isn’t hungry at lunch or picks at dinner when they first start methylphenidate – that’s the dopamine and noradrenaline boost dampening appetite signals in the brain. But here’s the thing… bodies are really good at defending against weight loss. When a child eats less for months, their metabolism can adapt. Some researchers think that early appetite suppression might trigger a rebound effect later – either the brain’s reward circuits get more sensitive to food, or kids start compensating by eating more when the medication wears off in the evening, or both.There’s also a developmental angle. If you slow down weight gain during childhood and puberty, what happens when that suppression lifts in late adolescence or early adulthood? In some cohorts, you see weight trajectories that dip early, level off in the teen years, then climb higher than expected in the twenties. It’s like the body is playing catch-up, and sometimes it overshoots.And let’s not forget that ADHD doesn’t go away. Even with medication, many young adults still struggle with impulse control around food, emotional eating, chaotic schedules that make regular meals hard, poor sleep… all things that pile onto obesity risk. So the medication might be part of the story, but it’s tangled up with everything else ADHD brings.
Q: Should I be worried about my teenager who’s been on Ritalin since elementary school?
A: Worried? No. Attentive? Yes. There’s a difference, and it matters.The longest follow-up data we have – like from the big MTA study that tracked kids for 16 years – did find that children who stayed on stimulants consistently ended up with slightly higher adult BMI compared to kids with ADHD who took less medication. The South Korean cohort saw the same pattern: longer cumulative exposure (say, four years or more) was linked to higher average BMI at age 20-25.But these are group averages. Plenty of kids on long-term methylphenidate reach adulthood at a perfectly healthy weight. And plenty of kids who never took medication struggle with weight because of their ADHD symptoms, genetics, or lifestyle.What you should do is use this information as a nudge to keep an eye on things. Is your teen’s doctor still tracking height, weight and BMI at every check-up? Are you talking about sleep, physical activity, screen time, eating patterns – not in a nagging way,
