12/14/2011 02:49:00 AM
Drugs used in the treatment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been deemed heart-safe for use in young and middle-aged adults.
Drugs used in the treatment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been deemed heart-safe for use in young and middle-aged adults. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland found no link between the use of the drugs in adults, and an increase in the risk for serious heart-related events, such as heart attack and stroke.
The new study is the second in a series of three commissioned by the U.S. government regarding the risks associated with such popular stimulant ADHD drugs as Ritalin, Adderall, and Concerta, and non-stimulant drug Strattera, as well as the generic versions of these medications.
The latest study follows the first in the series that was published just last month, which focused on the use of such drugs for the treatment of ADHD among 1.2 million children and young adults, ages 2 to 24, which yielded similar results. Both studies were recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The studies were commissioned due to numerous reports of adverse affects associated with ADHD medications from both doctors and patients that were recorded in a federal database. The U.S. Food and Drug Administation (FDA) estimates that about 1.5 million people took ADHD medications in 2005, among whom 32 percent were adult patients.
An issue of major concern has been that the drugs can raise blood pressure and heart rate, both of which increase the risk for serious cardiovascular events and heart disease. Because age is a factor for increased risk of heart-related conditions, their have been growing conerns regarding whether the drugs pose a danger to adult lives.
For the study, lead researcher Laurel Habel, a research fellow in epidemiology at Kaiser Permanente’s division of research, and her colleagues, analyzed data on more than 150,000 adult patients ranging in age from 25 to 64 who were taking ADHD medications.
Overall, their findings revealed that in nineteen years of follow-up, these patients were had no greater likelihood of suffering a heart attack, stroke, or sudden death due to use of the drugs than did adults who were not on the medications.
While the findings did initially suggest that adults taking ADHD drugs had a 3 percent increased risk of serious heart-related events when compared with those who had never used the drugs, further investigation provided some interesting results.
After analyzing all heart events among both groups, and accounting for other risk factors associated with heart disease, such as age, race, smoking and obesity, the use of ADHD drugs was actually linked to a lower risk of heart-related events than that of non-users.
However, Habel cautioned that the study results do not show that ADHD drugs provide protection against serious cardiac-related events. She pointed out that the evidence shows that people who takes these medications may have better general health, or may live healthier lifestyles than those who do not take the drugs.
This could be due to the tendency of individuals who take medications to have greater concerns about their health, which may mean that they have a lower risk for heart problems in general, compared to people who do not take medications. She noted, “I don’t want the message to be that these drugs are completely safe. I don't think our study can really say that. What we can say is that we don’t think there is a substantial increase in risk of heart problems from these drugs.”
Posted in: HEALTH
