Current research on the appropriate age for ADHD diagnosis may have profound implications for the medical treatment of children. The American Academy of Pediatrics has come together and determined that ADHD must be diagnosed and treated in children as young as 4 years of age.

The previously accepted age range for diagnosis and treatment of ADHD was between 6 and 12 years of age, but the latest guidelines released in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics has lowered it to include preschoolers. Before resorting to medicine, behavioral therapies are recommended.

Parents are trained on how to curb problem behaviors in their children before options like Concerta and Ritalin are explored. "We're not recommending that you just put 4-year-olds on meds right away," says Karen Pierce, MD, a clinical associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicage. She helped formulate the recommendation.

Karen Pierce goes explains the kind of severe circumstances that may warrant prescription drugs. "The kids that I put on meds, the preschoolers, have been kicked out of three or four preschools. They've had broken legs or broken arms. I have a 4-year-old who just choked his 2-year-old brother so severely because he was impulsive. Those are the kinds of kids we're talking about," Pierce says. She further recommends that medication be reserved for those kids who have exhibited symptoms for over 9 months.

The number of children diagnosed with ADHD is estimated at 8 percent. The study itself focused on 165 children who took either Ritalin or a placebo, finding that remission occured in 21% of those on the Ritalin and 13% of those on the placebo. Given the evolving brain chemistry of a child at 4 years of age, this study invites innovation among the pharmaceutical companies to appropriately target the symptoms of preschoolers in a sensitive and healthy manner.