Defined Diets and Childhood Hyperactivity National Institutes of Health
Consensus Development Conference Statement
January 13-15, 1982
This statement is more than five years old and is provided solely for historical purposes. Due to the cumulative nature of medical research, new knowledge has inevitably accumulated in this subject area in the time since the statement was initially prepared. Thus some of the material is likely to be out of date, and at worst simply wrong. For reliable, current information on this and other health topics, we recommend consulting the National Institutes of Health's MedlinePlus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/.
This statement was originally published as: Defined Diets and Childhood Hyperactivity. NIH Consens Statement 1982 Jan 13-15;4(3):1-11.For making bibliographic reference to the statement in the electronic form displayed here, it is recommended that the following format be used: Defined Diets and Childhood Hyperactivity. NIH Consens Statement Online 1982 Jan 13-15 [cited year month day];4(3):1-11.
A Consensus Development Conference was held at the National Institutes of Health on January 13, 14, and 15, 1982, to seek positions on issues involving defined diets and childhood hyperactivity.
At NIH, Consensus Development Conferences bring together biomedical investigators, practicing physicians, consumers, and health advocacy groups to provide a scientific assessment of technologies, including drugs, devices, and procedures, and to seek agreement on their safety and effectiveness.
On the first two days of the meeting, experts presented evidence to a Consensus Development Panel and members of the audience on the following key questions:
- What constitutes the hyperactivity syndrome in children? Is it a single disease or a cluster of diseases? Can it be graded or scaled in quantifiable variables such as attention span, learning ability, and social adjustment and by whom (teachers, parents, medical personnel)?
- What are the defined diets?
- Is there empirical evidence for an effect of these diets on hyperactivity?
- Is there any biological explanation to support an effect of defined diets on hyperactivity?
- If defined diets are effective, how and under what circumstances should they be employed?
- What are the directions for research?
Panel members were drawn from the lay public, biomedical research, pediatrics, nutrition, immunology and allergy, clinical pharmacy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, genetics, education, epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, and law, all relevant to a discussion of diets and childhood hyperactivity.
Childhood hyperactivity, officially termed the "attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity," but variously referred to as "hyperkinetic reaction of childhood," "hyperkinetic syndrome," "hyperactive child syndrome," "minimal brain damage," "minimal brain dysfunction," "minimal cerebral dysfunction," and "minor cerebral dysfunction," is an important health concern affecting afflicted children, their families, and those around them. Traditional therapy for this condition has included behavior modification, educational techniques, psychotherapy, and pharmacotherapy--most prominently amphetamine-like medications.
The 1973 report by Feingold of clinical observations on the benefit of a diet free of salicylates and food additives on hyperactivity focused attention on this new treatment approach. The publication of the Feingold diet in book form came at a time of increasing public concern about environmental pollution and a desire for full knowledge of all additives found in prepared food and the presence of such substances in the diet. These trends, along with a heightened aversion to habitual use of medication, an increase in awareness of the possible causative role of nutritional factors in diseases of many types, a desire for self-involvement in health care, and the frustration encountered in managing childhood hyperactivity, led to the widespread experimentation with the Feingold regimen and other defined diets.
Some controlled, double-blind stud