Academic outcomes in Asian children aged 8-11 years with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder treated with atomoxetine hydrochloride.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between changes in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) core symptoms and changes in academic outcome of Asian children treated with atomoxetine.

Methods: This open-label study enrolled patients aged 8-11 years with DSM-IV-TR-defined ADHD, who were naïve to ADHD medications and met the symptomatic severity threshold of 1.5 standard deviations above the age and gender norm for the ADHDRS-IV-Parent:Inv (ADHDRS) total score. Data collection occurred for 24 weeks and included academic outcome, measured by the school grade average (SGA).

Results: Of 228 patients enrolled from China (n = 82), Taiwan (n = 76), and Korea (n = 70), 77.2% completed the study. Statistically significant (P < 0.001) baseline to last observation improvements in ADHDRS and SGA scores were observed. However, no linear correlation between change in ADHDRS total score and SGA (-0.083, P = 0.293) was observed.

Conclusions: Despite significant independent improvements in core ADHD symptoms and academic grades over 24 weeks, the mean improvements observed in these measures did not appear to be correlated.