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To describe trends in the prevalence of prescribed attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication by Canadian preschoolers and school-age children and to compare these with trends in the prevalence of the ADHD diagnosis between 1994 and 2007.

Subjects participated in the National Longitudinal Survey on Children and Youth, a Canadian prospective survey collecting data biennially. Three cross-sectional samples of nonreferred children, aged 3 to 9 years and representative of Canadian children for 1994–1995 (n = 12 595), 2000–2001 (n = 13 904), and 2006–2007 (n = 14 655), were selected for the analyses. Information on prescribed medications and ADHD diagnosis was reported by each child's parents. Prevalence was estimated at each cycle, taking the child's age and sex into account.

The estimated prevalence of prescribed medications and ADHD diagnosis in …