TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex, drugs, and ADHD
T2 - The effects of ADHD pharmacological treatment on teens' risky behaviors
AU - Chorniy, Anna Vladimirovna
AU - Kitashima, Leah
N1 - Funding Information:
We are particularly grateful to Patrick Warren and Tom Mroz for their invaluable advice. We also would like to thank Jordan Adamson, Scott Baier, Scott Barkowski, James Bailey, Art Carden, Janet Currie, Babur De los Santos, Alex Fiore, Andrew Hanssen, Tom Lam, Mike Makowsky, Dan Miller, Helena Skyt Nielsen, Jaqueline Oliveira, Hannes Schwandt, Curtis Simon, Marianne Simonsen, and four anonymous reviewers for their suggestions on how to improve the draft. We appreciate helpful feedback from the Clemson Labor Economics workshop participants and 38th NBER Summer Institute attendees. Additionally, we would like to thank Mark Harouff, Heather Kirby, and Joe Magagnoli for their assistance in obtaining South Carolina Medicaid data. Funding from the Social Security Administration (SSA) through grant #1DRC12000002-02 to the National Bureau of Economic Research is acknowledged gratefully. The findings and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of the SSA, any agency of the Federal Government, or the NBER.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - In the U.S., 8% of children are diagnosed with ADHD and 70% of those are taking medications, yet little evidence exists on the effects of ADHD treatment on children's outcomes. We use a panel of South Carolina Medicaid claims data to investigate the effects of ADHD drugs on the probability of risky sexual behavior outcomes (STDs and pregnancy), substance abuse disorders, and injuries. To overcome potential endogeneity, we instrument for treatment using physicians' preferences to prescribe medication. Our findings suggest that pharmacological treatment has substantial benefits. It reduces the probability of contracting an STD by 3.6 percentage points (5.8 percentage points if we include STD screening), reduces the probability of having a substance abuse disorder by 7.3 percentage points, reduces the probability of injuries by 2.3 percentage points per year, and associated with them Medicaid costs decrease by $88.4, or 0.054 of a standard deviation.
AB - In the U.S., 8% of children are diagnosed with ADHD and 70% of those are taking medications, yet little evidence exists on the effects of ADHD treatment on children's outcomes. We use a panel of South Carolina Medicaid claims data to investigate the effects of ADHD drugs on the probability of risky sexual behavior outcomes (STDs and pregnancy), substance abuse disorders, and injuries. To overcome potential endogeneity, we instrument for treatment using physicians' preferences to prescribe medication. Our findings suggest that pharmacological treatment has substantial benefits. It reduces the probability of contracting an STD by 3.6 percentage points (5.8 percentage points if we include STD screening), reduces the probability of having a substance abuse disorder by 7.3 percentage points, reduces the probability of injuries by 2.3 percentage points per year, and associated with them Medicaid costs decrease by $88.4, or 0.054 of a standard deviation.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.labeco.2016.06.014
DO - 10.1016/j.labeco.2016.06.014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84979508767
SN - 0927-5371
VL - 43
SP - 87
EP - 105
JO - Labour Economics
JF - Labour Economics
ER -
