Few Cardiovascular Events Seen In Children and Teens Taking ADHD Meds

In a large study, children and teens taking prescription medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had few cardiovascular events, and in general had no more than children who were not exposed to the drugs.

The study, "Severe Cardiovascular Events and Death in Children and Adolescents Exposed to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Medications," will appear in the June 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online on Monday, May 16). Researchers looked at data on more than 241,000 users of ADHD medications aged 3 to 17 and more than 965,000 nonusers. They observed no statistically significant difference between users and nonusers in the rate of validated sudden death or ventricular arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). No myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) were identified in the medication users. Although there were 142 hospital claims for stroke across the two groups, none of these could be validated in follow-up with the hospitals.

Because the incidence of cardiovascular events was so low in the study group, it is not possible for the authors to completely rule out an association between these medications and increased rates of these events