THE EFFICACY OF ZINC AUGMENTATION IN CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER UNDER TREATMENT WITH METHYLPHENIDATE: A DOUBLE-BLIND, PLACEBO CONTROLLED, RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL

Background and Aim: Regarding of the role of zinc in the metabolism of the central nervous system and the correlation of zinc supplementation in the treatment of some Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, this study was conducted to evaluate the complementary effects of this nutrient.Methods: This was a double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized clinical trial. A convenience sample of 60 children aged 7-12 with ADHD were selected, and randomly allocated in two groups (30 for the case and 30 for the control group) by using Stata software. Both groups were treated with methylphenidate and the treatment in case group was augmented with zinc. Duration of study was six weeksResults: forty eight (80%) of participants were boy and 12 (20%) were girl. The mean age of patients was 9.6 ± 1.70 years. There was no significant difference between the two groups after the intervention in terms of total score, hyperactivity and impulsivity subscales by using variance analysis, but there was a significant difference between the mean of inattention score and there was a better improvement in the case group than the control group Conclusion: Augmentation with zinc can enhance the improvement of inattention

Keywords:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder , zinc , methylphenidate , Conners questionnaire