Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Are ADHD Medications and Cardiac Risks Linked?

According to a September 17th AHRQ press release, The Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) together with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan to conduct a huge examination of data from 500,000 patients who are taking medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to see if the medication increases the risk of cardiovascular problems. The data of both children and adults will be examined, and the study is expected to last two years.

It is already known that medications for ADHD can increase heart rate and blood pressure in patients taking the drug regime, and there have been case study reports of cardiac incidents, according to Dr. Gerald D. Pan, MD of the FDA's Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology, as stated in the AHRQ press release. The study is to determine whether there is a causal relationship between cardiac problems and a person's taking ADHD medications or whether cardiovascular problems are due to the person's already being at risk for the cardiac incidents. The data to be examined is from a preliminary seven FDA year study which ended in 2005.

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