Meta-Analysis of Methylphenidate's Effect on Growth in Children with ADHD

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Minxin Cao, published on figshare in May 2026, synthesizes evidence from 33 clinical studies. The research evaluates the effect of methylphenidate monotherapy on physical growth parameters—including height, weight, and BMI Z-scores—in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The analysis includes 16 high-quality and 17 moderate-quality studies, reporting mean differences and confidence intervals for key outcomes.

Use Cases

• Assessing the association between methylphenidate and growth reduction based on reported height and weight Z-score changes
• Evaluating the quality and heterogeneity of clinical evidence on ADHD medication side effects based on the included 33 studies
• Informing clinical monitoring guidelines based on the meta-analysis findings of small but significant effect sizes
• Designing future standardized prospective studies based on the identified limitations and heterogeneity in the existing literature

Strengths

• Includes 33 clinical studies, with 16 rated as high quality
• Reports specific statistical results, including mean differences and 95% confidence intervals for multiple growth parameters
• Employs established quality assessment tools (Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, RoB 2.0) and evidence grading (GRADE)

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

Minxin Cao via figshare

Collection Method

Systematic literature review and meta-analysis of clinical studies from Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science.

Time Range

Literature search conducted up to December 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-11 05:28:14; freshness should be verified