Children treated with stimulants for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at ages six and seven are unlikely to demonstrate increased risk of substance abuse as adults.

A study looked at substance abuse behaviours in 176 young men who had received treatment for ADHD in their youth.

Participants who commenced treatment at the age of six or seven did not show significantly different substance abuse rates when compared to a group who did not have ADHD (27 per cent compared to 29 per cent).

Children who began treatment for ADHD between eight and 12-years-old did display a higher tendency for substance abuse at 44 per cent. This was accounted for, however, by co-occurring antisocial personality disorder.

"Overall, our results suggest that early stimulant treatment does not appear to have negative outcomes for substance abuse in children with ADHD," lead author Salvatore Mannuzza said.

Limitations including small samples, non-randomised study designs and an exclusively male population that was not racially balanced, caused researchers to call for further studies on a larger sample of adolescents to be carried out.

The results of the two studies, which were funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, are reported by DGNews.

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