WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A comprehensive new study led by the University of Southampton has found that medications used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have only minor effects on cardiovascular health over several weeks or months of use.
Published in The Lancet Psychiatry, the study is the most extensive analysis of its kind, examining the cardiovascular effects of ADHD drugs through randomized controlled trials or RCTs.
Professor Samuele Cortese, senior lead author from the University of Southampton, said the findings provide reassurance adding that the risks and benefits of taking any medication had to be assessed together, but for ADHD drugs the risk-benefit ratio was 'reassuring'.
'We found an overall small increase in blood pressure and pulse for the majority of children taking ADHD medications,' Cortese said. 'Other studies show clear benefits in terms of reductions in mortality risk and improvement in academic functions, as well as a small increased risk of hypertension, but not other cardiovascular diseases. Overall, the risk-benefit ratio is reassuring for people taking ADHD medications.'
During the study, the international team of researchers analyzed data from 102 RCTs involving 22,702 participants diagnosed with ADHD. They used a sophisticated technique known as network meta-analysis, which enabled them to compare the effects of various medications even when head-to-head comparisons were not available.
The results showed that all ADHD medications generally had small impacts on blood pressure, heart rate, and electrocardiogram (ECG) measures. Notably, guanfacine was the only drug found to reduce blood pressure and heart rate, while other medications were associated with modest increases.
'While our findings are informative at the group level, that is, on average, we cannot exclude that a subgroup of individuals may have a higher risk of more substantial cardiovascular alterations,' Cortese noted.
'While it is currently not possible to identify those individuals at higher risk, efforts based on precision medicine approaches will hopefully provide important insights in the future.'
The study's findings are expected to provide greater clarity for clinicians and families concerned about the cardiovascular effects of ADHD medications, helping guide safer and more confident treatment decisions.
'Our findings should inform future clinical guidelines, stressing the need to systematically monitor blood pressure and heart rate, both for stimulants and non-stimulants. This should be particularly relevant for practitioners who might assume that only stimulants have a negative effect on the cardiovascular system,' said first author, Dr. Luis Farhat of University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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