The FDA is urging parents to keep their kids on adhd drugs like Ritalin and Adderall despite a recent study that suggests that the drugs (which already carry a host of warnings) have been linked to a risk of sudden death.
Published Monday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the study suggests a link between use of the stimulant drugs and sudden death in children and adolescents. The drugs already carry warnings about risks of heart attack and stroke in children with underlying heart conditions, but researchers have questioned whether they pose the same risks to children without those problems.
Healthy children taking the medications were six to seven times more likely to die suddenly for unexplained reasons than their peers, according to the study from the National Institute of Mental Health.
I continue to think that these are the most overprescribed drugs for the most overdiagnosed symptoms around. Two and a half million American kids are on these drugs. Just think about that number for a second.
