ADHD Medicines Linked to Deaths
A new study published by the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have played a part in some rare cases of sudden and unexplained death in children and adolescents. The medicine is the active ingredient in ADHD drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta, and is taken by approximately 2.5 million children in the United States.
The study focused on children and adolescents who died between the years of 1985 and 1996, including 564 who had died from unexplained heart-rate abnormality or other causes and 564 who died in motor vehicle accidents. The researchers found that 1.8 percent of the group of unexplained deaths had had stimulant medication prescribed, as compared to 0.4 percent of the group of children who had died in motor vehicle accidents. In 2006 the Food and Drug Administration asked the manufacturers of stimulants to add a warning to the label saying the medication should not be used in children with structural heart abnormalities or other heart problems. However, the FDA rejected a more severe warning about the possible risk of sudden unexplained death.
Madelyn S. Gould, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and public health at Columbia University, commented that the study findings “should underscore that stimulant medications are not innocuous and that their therapeutic use requires careful diagnostic assessment, diligent safety screening, and ongoing monitoring.” When deciding whether to place a child on such medications, clinicians and parents should weigh the seriousness of the situation to see if the benefits outweigh the risks, says Gould. However, Gould warns that “the bottom line is that parents should not take their children off stimulant medication they’re currently on and should not be scared to have their child go on a stimulant if that’s what they and their doctors decide is the best thing for the child.”
