Author Identifier (ORCID)
Paola Chivers: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2278-4857
Abstract
Background: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder in school-aged children and has been associated with impaired brain iron homeostasis. Evidence has shown that psychostimulant treatment may affect brain iron content in children with ADHD, however, longitudinal evidence remains limited. The present longitudinal study investigated the effect of psychostimulant treatment duration and age at treatment onset on brain iron content in children with ADHD. Methods: Neuroimaging and phenotypical data were collected from the publicly available Oregon ADHD-1000 dataset. After screening, data from 29 psychostimulant-medicated children with ADHD and 38 neurotypical children were included. Individual General Estimating Equation (GEE) models were used to investigate the effect of groups, treatment duration and age at treatment onset on brain iron content across time. Bonferroni correction was applied for multiple comparisons. Results: GEE analyses revealed no significant group effect on nigral, thalamic and striatal iron content. However, a significant group effect was found in the globus pallidus, with lower iron content in psychostimulant-medicated children with ADHD compared to their NT peers. Within the ADHD group, Bonferroni corrected post hoc comparison showed that earlier treatment onset (≤ 8 years) was associated with significantly higher iron content in the basal ganglia and thalamus compared to later treatment onset (≥ 9 years). Conclusion: Evidence has shown that medication-naïve children with ADHD may exhibit lower brain iron content compared to NT children and the current findings suggest that age at psychostimulant treatment onset, rather than treatment duration, may influence brain iron content in children with ADHD.
Keywords
ADHD, basal ganglia, brain iron, children, MRI, psychostimulant
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
9-1-2026
Volume
1886
Publication Title
Brain Research
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
RAS ID
99491
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Comments
Morandini, H. A., Vos, S. B., Chivers, P., Silk, T. J., & Rao, P. (2026b). Neurochemical impact of psychostimulants: Longitudinal MRI analysis of brain iron content in children with ADHD. Brain Research, 1886, 150354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150354