The Effects of Medical Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on Children’s Academic Achievement

We use Danish register data to estimate the effect of medical treatment of ADHD on children’s academic achievement. Using a sample of 7,523 children who undergo medical treatment, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in medical nonresponse to estimate the effect of medical treatment on school-leaving grades. Heckman two-stage sample selection models allow us to account for selection into the sample of children treated medically for ADHD. We find significant effects of treatment on ninth grade school-leaving grade point average (GPA). Compared to consistent treatment, part or full discontinuation of treatment has large significant negative effects on teacher evaluation and exam GPA, reducing grades with .18 to .19 standard deviations. A supplementary identification strategy and placebo regressions support our findings. The results demonstrate that ADHD treatment may mitigate the negative social consequences of behavioral problems.