A recent study published in the Journal: Pediatrics, shows that there is noan increase in cardiovascular death when kids or teens take ADD/ADHD medications.
This large study – observed 214,417 ADHD patients taking medication, and 965,668 control kids – not taking ADHD medications. They were observed over a period of 135 days for ADHD medication users, and 609 days in non-users. The specific outcomes which were being observed included sudden cardiac death, myocardial infarction (a ‘heart attack’), stroke, and cardiac arrhythmias (i.e. irregular heartbeats).
During the observational period – the rate of these events were very low in both groups. In the group taking ADHD medication, there were 28 deaths (incidence 1.79 per 10,000 person-years) and 607 deaths in the control group (incidence 3.00 per 10,000 person-years). There were no validated cases of MI (heart attack) or stroke in the medication group and 11 cases in the group which wasn’t on medication.
This research supports previous studies which showed that kids and teens taking ADHD medications are NOT at increased risk for cardiac death. The sad reality is that there will be a small number of kids/teens who pass away from cardiac issues (i.e. a heart problem that no one knew about), and ADHD medications do not seem to worsen that rate.
There is still a warning on ADHD medications – for individuals with structural heart abnormalities (i.e. ‘holes’ in the heart like an ASD or VSD), arrhythmias, or adults with unstable coronary artery disease. If you are concerned about this – by all means talk to the doctor, and a specialist if needed as well (like a cardiologist, or pediatric cardiologist).
This study, hopefully, will help reassure some people with ADD/ADHD who are concerned about this very serious side effect.
