Impact of COVID-19 pandemic policies on ADHD medication prescriptions among children and adolescents in Portugal.

ABSTRACT: This study aims to analyse the prescription of medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents, by age group and gender, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the impact of government policies during this period. This study was a retrospective cohort analysis using data from the Portuguese national prescription database and included all children and adolescents aged 5-19 years. We conducted an interrupted time series analysis, modelled using a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) approach, to evaluate the impact on prescription medications while considering two intervention points resulting from government policies: March 2020, marking the start of strict anti-pandemic measures, and May 2021, marking the beginni

SUBMITTER: Silva C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12158850 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature