Long-term adverse effects of chronic Methylphenidate use? Results from the ADDUCE study

Tobias Banaschewski ¹ David Coghill ^2,3 Ian C. K. Wong ^4,5

¹Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/ Heidelberg University
²Division of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Dundee
³Departments of Paediatrics and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne
⁴Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Centre for Safe Medication Practice and Research, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
⁵Centre for Paediatric Pharmacy Research, Research Department of Practice and Policy, UCL School of Pharmacy

Whilst short term efficacy and safety of methylphenidate (MPH) as a treatment for ADHD in children and adolescents is well established, the longer term benefits and risks are much less well studied. The EU-FP7 funded Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Drugs Use Chronic Effects (ADDUCE) study was designed to address longer term safety and tolerability of MPH. ADDUCE combined existing data through systematic reviews of the literature and data mining of existing data-bases with prospective data gathered from both longitudinal and cross sectional studies. Within the ADDUCE program, a 2-year longitudinal naturalistic pharmacovigilance study conducted across 27 European sites in 4 countries (Germany, Hungary, Italy and the UK) compared data from 3 cohorts of children and adolescents (aged 6–17), a group of 800 previously medication naive children and adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD starting MPH treatment, a group of 400 children and adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD who have never been treated with ADHD medication (n = 400),and a healthy control group of 400 children and adolescents without ADHD. All participants were assessed 5 times during the 2-year follow-up period for growth and development, psychiatric, neurological and cardiovascular health. In a further cross sectional study a detailed examination of cardiovascular status was conducted across 2 groups of adolescents and young adults with ADHD one unmedicated and one who had received MPH for > 3 years. This presentation will provide an overview on the preliminary key results.

TB Disclosure of potential conflicts of interests: Dr. Banaschewski served in an advisory or consultancy role for Actelion, Hexal Pharma, Lilly, Lundbeck, Medice, Novartis, Shire. He received conference support or speaker’s fee by Lilly, Medice, Novartis and Shire. He has been involved in clinical trials conducted by Shire & Viforpharma. He received royalities from Hogrefe, Kohlhammer, CIP Medien, Oxford University Press.