• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Study: Use of methylphenidate-based ADHD medication increases the risk of heart problems

August 20, 2014 by SharpBrains

Methylphenidate_pillsADHD med­ica­tion enhances the risk of heart prob­lems in chil­dren (Sci­ence Nordic):

“The risk of devel­op­ing heart prob­lems is twice as big for chil­dren tak­ing med­i­cine for Atten­tion Deficit-Hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty Dis­or­der (ADHD) when com­pared to chil­dren not receiv­ing the medicine…The study builds on data from 714,000 chil­dren born in 1990–1999…The study cov­ered near­ly all types of ADHD med­i­cine. Methylphenidate-based med­ica­tions account for 98 per cent of treat­ments. This group of med­ica­tion is sold under the brands Con­cer­ta, Methylin, Rital­in, Equasym XL, Mot­iron and Medikinet…

To make sure that the mea­sured dif­fer­ence was not due to the dis­or­der itself, the sci­en­tists com­pared chil­dren with ADHD diag­no­sis, who were receiv­ing med­i­cine, with oth­er ADHD diag­nosed chil­dren, who were not receiv­ing medicine.??The sci­en­tists found, that the haz­ard ratio for chil­dren receiv­ing ADHD med­i­cine was 120 per cent high­er, than chil­dren not get­ting medicine…

Tine Houmann empha­sis­es that doc­tors and par­ents should not be scared of results like those pub­lished in the study. “It is impor­tant that we do not become so afraid of rare side effects that we do not give med­i­cine to chil­dren with ADHD. Because the prob­lems and risks con­nect­ed to unmed­icat­ed ADHD are severe. It can lead to addic­tion, crime and devel­op­ing psy­chi­atric diseases”…Søren Dals­gaard believes that his study con­firms that doc­tors must think twice when pre­scrib­ing ADHD medicine.”

Study: Car­dio­vas­cu­lar Safe­ty of Stim­u­lants in Chil­dren with Atten­tion-Deficit/Hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty Dis­or­der: A Nation­wide Prospec­tive Cohort Study (Jour­nal of Child and Ado­les­cent Psychopharmacology)

  • Abstract: The pur­pose of this study was to deter­mine whether stim­u­lant users are at high­er risk of a lat­er car­dio­vas­cu­lar event than are non-users, exam­in­ing this asso­ci­a­tion in both a nation­al cohort and a pop­u­la­tion-based sam­ple of chil­dren and ado­les­cents diag­nosed with atten­tion-deficit/hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD)…We con­duct­ed a lon­gi­tu­di­nal, prospec­tive cohort study of all chil­dren born in Den­mark between 1990 and 1999. With­in this cohort, chil­dren with ADHD were iden­ti­fied. Data from nation­al health reg­is­ters on psy­chi­atric and somat­ic diag­noses, stim­u­lant pre­scrip­tions, car­dio­vas­cu­lar risk fac­tors, pre- and peri­na­tal and sociode­mo­graph­ic covari­ates in all chil­dren and their par­ents were merged, using the unique per­son­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion number…Results: In the total pop­u­la­tion (n=714,258 con­tribut­ing a total of 6,767,982 per­son-years) use of stim­u­lants increased the risk of a car­dio­vas­cu­lar event. In chil­dren with ADHD (n=8300) stim­u­lant treat­ment also increased the risk of a car­dio­vas­cu­lar event…with a com­plex time-depen­dent dose-response relationship…Cardiovascular events were rare but twice as like­ly in stim­u­lant users as in non-users, both in the total nation­al pop­u­la­tion and in chil­dren with ADHD.

Relat­ed articles:

  • Study: Reduc­ing the Need for High Med­ica­tion Dos­es with Behav­ior Therapy
  • Study: Neu­ro­feed­back brain train­ing can com­ple­ment ADHD stim­u­lant medications

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Attention & ADD/ADHD, Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: adhd, ADHD-diagnosis, ADHD-medication, cardiovascular, Concerta, Equasym XL, heart problems, Medikinet, Methylin, methylphenidate, Motiron, Ritalin

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 12,619 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy