Long-term cardiovascular safety of psychostimulants in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Objective: Side effects are a concern during psychostimulant treatment. Unfortunately, many previous studies only investigated short-term effects of psychostimulants in laboratory settings which lack clinical daily routines.

Methods: We examined 1042 patient records of patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were referred to a pediatric-psychiatry practice over 12 years. Data analysis was based on 466 children with ADHD who were newly treated with psychostimulants and who were not in treatment for elevated blood pressure. We analysed blood pressure percentiles, heart rate and BMI percentiles.

Results: There was a decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure percentiles. Heart rate was not affected. BMI slightly declined in girls.

Conclusions: In general psychostimulants were safe. To further elucidate negative effects of psychostimulants, long-term controlled and randomized studies in naturalistic settings are of interest.

Keywords:

• ADHD
• psychostimulants
• heart rate
• blood pressure
• BMI

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Viola Renner editing the manuscript as native speaker and Julia Felix for data preprocessing.

Key points

PS treatment was safe.

Blood pressure decreased under PS treatment.

Heart rate were not affected overall during PS treatment.

BMI declined in girls under PS treatment.

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. This research was not funded.