ArticleEuropean child & adolescent psychiatry2018
Serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in treatment-naïve boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder treated with methylphenidate: an 8-week, observational pretest-posttest study.
Article in European child & adolescent psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Plasma BDNF levels in children with ADHD before and after methylphenidate treatment.Scandinavian journal of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychology · 2026Article
- Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and neurotrophic factors in drug-naive children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Neurotrophins in Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Narrative Review of the Literature.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF): an effect biomarker of neurodevelopment in human biomonitoring programs.Frontiers in toxicology · 2023Review
- Emotional and sensory dysregulation as a possible missing link in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A review.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Review
- Article
- Increased Serum Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor, Nerve Growth Factor, Glial-derived Neurotrophic Factor and Galanin Levels in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and the Effect of 10 Weeks Methylphenidate Treatment.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Article
- BDNF, proBDNF and IGF-1 serum levels in naïve and medicated subjects with autism.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Cord serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels at birth associate with temperament outcomes at one year.Journal of psychiatric research · 2022Article
- ADHD: Reviewing the Causes and Evaluating Solutions.Journal of personalized medicine · 2021Review
- Current Evidence on the Role of the Gut Microbiome in ADHD Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Implications.Nutrients · 2021Review
- The Potential Influence of the Bacterial Microbiome on the Development and Progression of ADHD.Nutrients · 2019Review
- PharmGKB summary: methylphenidate pathway, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics.Pharmacogenetics and genomics · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an important neurotrophin in the brain that modulates dopaminergic neurons. In this study, we aimed to investigate the changes in serum BDNF levels of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in response to OROS methylphenidate treatment. We also aimed to determine whether there were any pre-post-differences between ADHD subtypes and comorbid psychiatric disorders in serum BDNF levels. Fifty male children with ADHD and 50 male healthy controls within the age range of 6-12 years were recruited to the study. The psychiatric diagnoses were determined by applying a structured interview with Kiddie schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children-present and lifetime version. The symptom severity of ADHD was measured using the Clinical Global Impression ADHD Severity Scale (CGI-S). Physicians completed Du Paul ADHD questionnaires. The levels of serum BDNF were assessed before and after 8 weeks of treatment with effective dosages of OROS methylphenidate. In the present study, the mean serum BDNF levels of boys with ADHD and of the healthy controls were 2626.33 ± 1528.05 and 2989.11 ± 1420.08 pg/mL, respectively. Although there were no statistically significant difference between the ADHD group and healthy controls at baseline (p = 0.22), the increase of serum BDNF was statistically significant from baseline to endpoint in the ADHD group (p = 0.04). The mean serum BDNF levels at baseline and endpoint of the ADHD group were 2626.33 ± 1528.05 and 3255.80 ± 1908.79 pg/mL, respectively. The serum BDNF levels of ADHD-inattentive subtype were significantly lower at baseline (p = 0.02), whereas BDNF levels post-treatment showed no significant difference. The increase of serum BDNF levels with methylphenidate treatment after 8 weeks was significantly higher in the inattentive group (p = 0.005). The increase of serum BDNF levels with methylphenidate treatment after 8 weeks in boys with ADHD may support the potential role of BDNF in the pathophysiology of ADHD. The role of BDNF in ADHD subtypes in particular should be evaluated with further, larger studies.
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