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A new study from Iceland suggests that children who receive early treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder may have better results on national standardized tests, especially in math. 

The researchers studied 11,872 Icelandic children born between 1994 and 1996. The children started medication for ADHD at different times between fourth and seventh grades.

The study was published in the July 2012 edition of Pediatrics.

The findings showed that children who began drug treatment within 12 months of their fourth-grade year test declined 0.3 percent in math by the time they took their seventh-grade test. Those numbers are a contrast to a decline of 9.4 percent in children who began taking medication 25-to-36 months after their fourth-grade test.

The study revealed that girls benefited only in mathematics, whereas boys had marginal benefits in math and language arts.

The study's lead author Helga Zoega, PhD, Post-Doctoral Fellow of Epidemiology at Mount Sinai's Institute for Translational Epidemiology said in a news release that children who began taking medications immediately after their fourth-grade standardized tests showed the smallest declines in academic performance.

"The effect was greater in girls than boys and also greater for children who did poorly on their fourth grade test," Zoega said. "Their short-term efficacy in treating the core symptoms of ADHD -- the symptoms of hyperactivity and attention and impulsivity -- that has been established," 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports suggest that nearly one in 10 kids and teens in the U.S. have  been diagnosed with ADHD, and 66 percent of those with a current diagnosis are treated with medication such as stimulants. 

Stimulants are widely used in the United States as a therapeutic option for children with inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity associated with ADHD. Long-term follow-up studies of stimulant use and academic performance are scarce, according to the researchers.

The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the University of Iceland Center of Public Health Sciences, Landspitali University Hospital, Iceland, Research Triangle Institute, NC, Boston University Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health.