Dietary Intake, Growth and Development of Children With Adhd in A Randomized Clinical Trial of Ritalin and Melatonin Co-Administration: Through Circadian Cycle Modification Or Appetite Enhancement?

Objective: it is postulated that ritalin may adversely affect sleep,appetite, weight and growth of some children with adhd. therefore, weaimed to evaluate melatonin supplementation effects on dietary intake,growth and development of children with adhd treated with ritalinthrough circadian cycle modification and appetite mechanisms .method: after obtaining consent from parents, 50 children aged 7-12with combined form of ad/hd were randomly divided into two groupsbased on gender blocks: one received melatonin (3 or 6 mg based onweight) combined with ritalin (1mg/kg) and the other took placebocombined with ritalin (1mg/kg) in a double blind randomized clinical trial.three-day food record, and standard weight and height of children wereevaluated prior to the treatment and 8 weeks after the treatment.children’s appetite and sleep were evaluated in weeks 0, 2, 4 and 8.hypotheses were then analyzed using spss17.results: paired sample t-test showed significant changes in sleeplatency (23.15±15.25 vs. 17.96±11.66; p=0.047) and total sleepdisturbance score (48.84±13.42 vs. 41.30±9.67; p=0.000) before andafter melatonin administration, respectively. however, appetite and foodintake did not change significantly during the study. sleep duration andappetite were significantly correlated in melatonin group (pearsonr=0.971, p=0.029). mean height (138.28±16.24 vs. 141.35±16.78;p=0.000) and weight (36.73±17.82 vs. 38.97±17.93; p=0.005) weresignificantly increased in melatonin treated children before and after thetrial .conclusion: administration of melatonin along with ritalin improves height and weight growth of children. these effects may be attributed to circadian cycle modification, increasing sleep duration and the consequent more growth hormone release during sleep.