Does zinc moderate essential fatty acid and amphetamine treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Antioxidants.

Zinc is an important co-factor for metabolism relevant to neurotransmitters, fatty acids, prostaglandins, and melatonin, and indirectly affects dopamine metabolism, believed intimately involved in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

To explore the relationship of zinc nutrition to essential fatty acid supplement and stimulant effects in treatment of ADHD, the researchers re-analyzed data from an 18-subject double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover treatment comparison of d-amphetamine and Efamol (evening primrose oil, rich in gamma-linolenic acid).

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as children, men only.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Because people in this Antioxidants study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Antioxidants study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Antioxidants could be set against what happens without it.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Antioxidants and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

Subjects were categorized as zinc-adequate (n = 5), borderline zinc (n = 5), and zinc-deficient (n = 8) by hair, red cell, and urine zinc levels; for each category, placebo-active difference means were calculated on teachers' ratings.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antioxidants, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Central Nervous System Stimulants, Dextroamphetamine, Fatty Acids, Essential, Linoleic Acids and Nutritional Status.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Antioxidants.

The publication is from 2000 (Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.