Hacker News Reader

Comment by brasscupcakes | Hacker News Reader

The BMI being higher is slightly interesting (you would guess it would be the reverse), but the height differential seems vanishingly small.

Concerns that stimulant meds taken as children reduced adult height have been around for three decades.

To my mind, the bigger take away here is that ADHD meds don't significantly impact adult height.

View on HN

The fact that the height of adult males with ADHD is greater than that of males without ADHD (first figure/graphs, G & H) should indicate that there is no causative link that the medication has an impact. For females, the average does not show this, but if you look carefully, the variation is bigger. The same selection bias is possible in this case.

Instead, to me it looks like there is selection bias going on. Shorter males are more likely to get MPH prescribed is an equally valid explanation.

Luckily, the conclusion makes no assertions about height either, nor does the paper make conclusions about any causative relation.

Maybe they have a higher BMI because they become less active :D

Or, alternatively, because many of us have a tendency to eat when we are uninterested in other tasks...simply how much I snack, whether I feel like eating at regular mealtimes, and the correlated impact on my weight, is a pretty big indicator that I need to ask my physician to adjust the dose of my Vyvanse next time I send a message for my next fill.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com