ArticlePLOS mental health2025
Does age of ADHD medication initiation predict long-term risk of anxiety? A scoping review.
Article in PLOS mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with mental health comorbidities, including anxiety. The purpose of this review is to describe evidence regarding the relationship between timing of ADHD medication initiation and long-term anxiety outcomes. Anxiety has a unique relationship to ADHD, as it tends to present earlier in individuals with ADHD compared to those without ADHD and can precede or co-occur with other disorders such as depression. Despite evidence that psychostimulant treatment can reduce short-term anxiety symptoms, the effects of ADHD medication on anxiety long-term are less clear, and the influence of age at medication initiation is unknown. This scoping review included a search of the databases MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase (Elsevier), and Web of Science (Clarivate). The search was conducted by a professional medical librarian in consultation with the author team and included keywords and subject headings representing ADHD, children, medication, and anxiety. Searches yielded a total of 3516 citations after removal of duplicates. Titles and abstracts were screened independently by two reviewers, and conflicts were resolved via discussion. Full-text articles were screened independently by a team of reviewers. Data extraction was completed independently by two reviewers. All screening and data extraction activities were piloted prior to completion. Two articles were selected for inclusion, and neither article found a relationship between age at ADHD medication initiation and long-term anxiety outcomes. Literature examining the relationship between age at ADHD medication initiation and long-term anxiety outcomes is scarce. Neither of the two articles included in this review revealed a significant relationship, however these results must be considered in light of major limitations. Future research is needed to discover the effects of age at ADHD medication initiation on long-term anxiety. This topic is of importance in development of clinical and policy interventions increasing access to early diagnosis and treatment of ADHD.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.