ATLANTA, May 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday that in 2004 at least 3,075 people were treated for adverse reactions to hyperactivity drugs.
More than half the adverse reactions came from accidental overdoses, with more than half of those children who had not been prescribed the drugs but had taken those prescribed for others, the Wall Street Journal reported. The complaints included chest pains, strokes and irregular heartbeat.
About 4 million people in the United States use Ritalin and similar drugs to control hyperactivity.
Adam Cohen, the lead author of the study, said that bad reactions to drugs for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are almost certainly under-reported because in cases where patients were not prescribed one of the drugs a doctor would not necessarily link the medication to their symptoms.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
