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Caffeine withdrawal in normal school-age children
G A Bernstein1, M E Carroll, N W Dean
1Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455, USA.
Insights
Children may experience caffeine withdrawal symptoms, including reduced attention and slower reaction times, after stopping intake. This study observed these effects in children after caffeine cessation.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Caffeine is a widely consumed substance globally.
- Understanding its effects on children is crucial due to increasing consumption.
- Potential for withdrawal symptoms in pediatric populations requires investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether children exhibit withdrawal effects following the cessation of caffeine intake.
- To assess the impact of caffeine withdrawal on cognitive functions in children.
Main Methods:
- A single-blind, within-subjects, repeated-measures study involving 30 children.
- Four testing sessions: baseline, on caffeine, during withdrawal (24 hours post-cessation), and return to baseline.
- Evaluation using self-report symptom measures and objective tests of attention, memory, and motor performance.
Main Results:
- Significant decline in attention, specifically on a visual continuous performance test, was observed during caffeine withdrawal.
- Deterioration in response time on attention tasks was noted 24 hours after caffeine discontinuation.
- These attention deficits appeared to persist for up to one week.
Conclusions:
- Children may experience decreased performance in reaction time and sustained attention tasks after discontinuing caffeine.
- Findings suggest that children can manifest caffeine withdrawal symptoms.
- Further research is recommended to confirm and characterize caffeine withdrawal in pediatric populations.
Objective:
Caffeine is widely consumed by children around the world. The purpose of this study was to determine whether children manifest withdrawal effects after cessation of caffeine intake.
Method:
Thirty normal children completed the single-blind, within-subjects, repeated-measures study with weekly sessions. Subjects were tested four times: (1) baseline (on regular caffeine diet); (2) on caffeine (approximately 120 to 145 mg/day); (3) during withdrawal (24 hours after discontinuation of caffeine taken for 13 consecutive days); and (4) at return to baseline. Subjects were evaluated with self-report measures of symptoms and objective measures of attention, motor performance, processing speed, and memory.
Results:
During caffeine withdrawal, there was a significant deterioration on response time of a visual continuous performance test of attention. This finding is consistent with caffeine withdrawal. The deterioration in response time appeared to persist for 1 week.
Conclusions:
Twenty-four hours after children discontinued caffeine, there was a decrease in performance on reaction time of a task requiring sustained attention. Further work is indicated to determine whether children manifest caffeine withdrawal effects after cessation of caffeine intake.