Does Psychostimulant Use Increase Cardiovascular Risk in Children with ADHD?

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - June 26, 2014 - PRLog -- Psychostimulant use to treat children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is increasing worldwide, and the evaluation of the cardiovascular safety of stimulant medication used in treatment has been a recent topic of concern.  The results of the first nationwide study of the cardiovascular safety of stimulants in children and adolescents are published in Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology (JCAP) (http://www.liebertpub.com/jcap), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available free on the JCAP (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cap.2014.0020) website.

Søren Dalsgaard, MD, PhD, and coauthors, Aarhus University and iPSYCH (Denmark), University of Southern Denmark, Hospital of Telemark (Norway), and Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, CT), conducted a prospective study of more than 700,000 children in Denmark; 8,300 had ADHD. The researchers compared stimulant use and cardiovascular events in the entire population and in children with ADHD and found a small but statistically significant risk associated with treatment; they also report on the relationship between specific stimulant dose and risk of a cardiovascular event. Their results appear in the article “Cardiovascular Safety of Stimulants in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder—A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cap.2014.0020).”

“This study confirms the small but real risk we have understood for some time through prior reports and clinical experience,” says Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology and President, Child Mind Institute, New York, NY. “But Dalsgaard et al.’s excellent design and the robust sample size make it abundantly clear that treating clinicians cannot ignore existing guidelines concerning the assessment of cardiac risk prior to treatment and monitoring key vital signs during the course.”

About the Journal
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology (JCAP) (http://www.liebertpub.com/jcap) is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 10 times a year online with Open Access options and in print. The Journal is dedicated to child and adolescent psychiatry and behavioral pediatrics, covering clinical and biological aspects of child and adolescent psychopharmacology and developmental neurobiology. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the JCAP (http://www.liebertpub.com/jcap) website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Games for Health Journal, and Violence and Gender. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) website.