Mental Health Blogs

A new study out in the American Journal of Psychiatry asserts that there is a risk, however small, of sudden death associated with the use of ADHD stimulants in youths. The study examined state vital statistics from across the country for the years 1985 through 1996 and, according to the authors, was mostly looking for methylphenidate (Ritalin) use. That time frame would largely exclude the years that Adderall has been on the market, so it’d be interesting to know what kind of results they would’ve gotten through 2006 or so.

Anyway, what researchers found was that in 564 cases of unexplained sudden death that 10 of the cases–or 1.8 percent–involved ADHD stimulant use. They compared this group with a control group of youths who had died in auto accidents and concluded:

“This case-control study provides support for an association between the use of stimulants and sudden unexplained death among children and adolescents. Although sudden unexplained death is a rare event, this finding should be considered in the context of other data about the risk and benefit of stimulants in medical treatment.”

Interestingly, the journal published an accompanying editorial by Benedetto Vitiello who’s one of NIMH’s big shots on ADHD and Kenneth Towbin, also of NIMH. The pair pretty much try to pooh-pooh the study–while praising its methodology!–while offering this takeaway:

“However, it is equally clear that 1) sudden unexplained death is a rare event, 2) this is only the first such study, 3) it relies on small numbers, and 4) it is not possible to quantify the risk beyond estimating that it is very small. A full estimate of the risk-benefit ratio of ADHD treatment cannot be properly conducted at the population level because sudden unexplained death is so rare and we lack controlled long-term data on the effectiveness of these medications for reducing the risk for other adverse health outcomes, such as accidents, medical hospitalizations, unsafe sex practices, antisocial behavior, and substance abuse, which have been associated with ADHD.”

It’s fine for them to point out the rarity of sudden unexplained deaths and so on, but given that the average age in the study group was 15.76 years and ages ranged from about 13 to 17 years of age, it’s kind of weird–at least to me–that they would try to use a backdoor justification of ADHD stimulant use related to accidents, unsafe sex, anti-social behavior and so on. Who the hell do these guys think Americans with ADHD are anyway? Is that what they really think of America’s teens? That’s some nice stigmatization there.

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Related posts:

1. FDA Links ADHD Stimulants To Sudden Death In Healthy Children
2. Yale Researcher Links Childhood ADHD To Adult Crime, Drug Dealing
3. Study: Anti-Depressants Linked To Increased Stroke Risk In Older Women
4. Study: Anti-Depressants Put Breast Cancer Survivors At Risk
5. Deaths in Children Possibly Linked to ADHD Drugs