Pine for hyperactive kids?

2006-06-19 08:08

Paris - A group of hyperactive children behaved much better after being given an extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree which grows in the south-west of the country, a new study says.

In the study, featured in the latest edition of European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 61 hyperactive children with an average age of nine and a half were tested by the paediatric hospital in Bratislava.

While 41 were given the nutritional supplement pycnogenol, which includes the essence from trees in Landes in south-western France, the other 20 were given a placebo once a day for a month.

"Our results show that administering pycnogenol led to a significant reduction in hyperactivity, an improvement in attention, of motor co-ordination and concentration with children suffering from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)," the report says.

"In the placebo group no positive effects were noted," it said.

The report says the benefits disappeared after the tests ended.

Pycnogenol is made by the Swiss company Horphag.

The American Medical Association says that 7.8% of American children suffer from hyperactivity, and 4.3% receive medical treatment.

However medicines for hyperactivity, notably Ritalin, have been shown to have major side effects, such as depression and irritability.

- AFP