BMJ 2008;336:1144 (24 May).
An increasing number of children are taking drugs for hyperactivity.
Removing colours and preservatives is a relatively harmless activity, so a properly supervised and evaluated trial period of eliminating them should be part of standard treatment, says an editorial by Andrew Kemp, professor of paediatric allergy and clinical immunology at the University of Sydney.
- Whether preservatives and colourings cause or exacerbate hyperactive behaviours is an important question for many paediatricians and parents.
- A recent randomised placebo controlled trial in 297 children aged 3-9 years provides evidence of increased hyperactive behaviour after they ate a mixture of food colourings and a preservative (sodium benzoate).
- In contrast to many previous studies, the children were from the general population and did not have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
The trial found an adverse effect of the mixture on behaviour as measured by a global hyperactivity aggregate score. The daily dose approximated that found in two 56 g bags of sweets.
Thanks for the information on food additives and hyperactivity. It does seem like a relativly harmless activity; I wonder hy more doctors and patients don’t do it?
We recently wrote an article on a recent study that showed that certain food additives can could cause hyperactivity at Brain Blogger.The recent study that was conducted by the EFSA that food additives was an interesting one. But will doctors take that into consideration when treating a patient? Will they just prescribe a drug and be done with it?
We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kelly