ADHD Drugs Linked To Sudden Death In Children?
New research finds that stimulant medications commonly prescribed to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children are associated with an increased risk of sudden death. Although rare the researchers in this study sifted through mortality data from 1985 through 1996, and found 564 cases of sudden death that occurred in children aged 7 to 19 and they found 10 sudden, unexplained deaths in children taking stimulant medications.
The study found that children and teens taking ADHD stimulant medications were seven times more likely to die suddenly than their peers.
“What we found — to our surprise — is that even if you take out confounding factors, the association between stimulant use and sudden death was still significant,” said study author, Madelyn Gould, a professor of clinical epidemiology in psychiatry at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City. “I’m confident the association is real and significant, but it’s very rare. I don’t want our findings to change prescribing patterns or for a parent to change their willingness to use stimulant medications if they’re called for, but physicians should monitor patients with any new medication you give a young person.”
Results of the study were published in the June 15 online edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
As many as 2.5 million children in the United States take ADHD stimulant medications, such as amphetamine, dextroamphetamine (Adderall), methamphetamine or methylphenidate (Ritalin).
reserchers say that if your child has been on a stimulant for awhile there may be no need to worry and parents should not abruptly stop their child’s medications,. If you are concerned call your pediatrician and go over the risks and side effects of the medication and if necessary have a full physical of your child before taking these types of medications.
ADD, ADHD, ADHD and sudden death, children, parenitng, parenting our children. ADHD medications, adderall, ritalin, teens, school age children
June 15th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
I think it’s important to add that per the article, that it was found that these children in many cases had undiagnosed cardiac conditions, and that parents are urged to have EKGs or similar diagnostic tests done not only before starting treatment, but throughout treatment with meds.
Also, while the report indicates that children on ADHD were “7x more likely etc., etc.”, they failed to provide what the number of deaths would be for children who are ADHD and NOT on drugs dieing due to their unchecked impulsive behaviors.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:12 am
I think that all children put on stimulants should be given a full physical before and during treatment with these drugs, and if that includes a EKG, so be it.
The drug companies have talked about deaths in children from these stimulants for years, they have known about it and tried to keep it under the rug for as long as they could.
July 18th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Erinn,
Well written. I posted an article right after the FDA released its study; this is something that I have been worried about for 20 years. Interestingly, the study started about 25 years ago, so there must have been evidence before 1985 to warrant this 10 year study of sudden deaths in stimulant-prescribed children.
Lori Kloc RN BSN