Frecuencia de administración de psicoestimulantes en escolares de primero a sexto básico en Talca

background: stimulant drugs are frequently prescribed in the treatment of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (adhd) in children. drug prescription is associated with children's age and gender. chile has few reports of stimulant drugs prescription and there are no records in our region. objective: to evaluate the prevalence of stimulant drugs intake in schoolchildren from first to sixth grade in talca. material and methods: a cross-sectional study in schoolchildren attending first to sixth grade at urban schools in talca was performed. the schools were stratified according to socioeconomic status. a list with sex and age of the children was obtained from the headmaster of each school. the information about stimulant drugs prescription was provided by the class teacher or the person in charge of special education. results: we studied 2,905 children, 1.76% of them were under stimulant drugs, 0.96% took methylphenidate and 0.76% took dexamphetamine. administration of adhd drugs was higher in boys than in girls (or = 5.8; 95% ic: 1.35-4.43), in fourth grade students (or = 2.3; 95%, ic: 1.26-4.15) and in 11-year-old children (or = 2,4; 95%, ic: 1,35-4,43). intake of methylphenidate was higher in the highest socioeconomic status (p = 0.0496), while the highest intake of dexamphetamine was found in the lowest socioeconomic status (p = 0.0014). discussion: the use of stimulant drugs medication is low in talca compared to national records. the prescription of these drugs is related to the age, sex of the students while the kind of drug prescribed was related to the socioeconomic status of the child.