A new research on the drugs used for treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder shows that the medication does not increase the risk of suicide. The study contradicts previous observations that ADHD drugs upped the number of suicides.
For the study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, examined data gathered from the national patient registers. They analyzed 37,936 Swedish patients diagnosed with ADHD between 1960 and 1996. Researchers tracked the patients from 2006 to 2009 and monitored their drug treatment and events that could be linked to suicide attempts and suicide.
"Our work in several ways shows that most likely there is no link between treatment with ADHD drugs and an increased risk of suicide attempts or suicide. The results rather indicate that ADHD drugs may have a protective effect," lead researcher Henrik Larsson, from the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Karolinska Institutet, said in a press release.
Past researches suggest that ADHD drug treatments are associated with suicidal thoughts. Researchers noted that these studies were small or used limited methods.
The study stated no difference between suicidal behaviors in ADHD patients receiving medication and those who did not.
"Many epidemiological studies on the risks related to drugs fail to adjust for the differences between individuals who take the drugs and those who do not. This is a critical limitation given that the individuals on medication are usually more severely ill than the others," Larsson said.
Another study on ADHD medications showed that the drugs were linked with reduced smoking risk. The team had found that the stimulant treatment in fact lowered the smoking rates in the subjects. The effect was more in those with severe ADHD and when participants took stimulant medications constantly.
The findings of the current study were published in the British Medical Journal.
