Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Volume 47, Issue 9 , Pages 977-980, September 2008

Paying Attention to Stimulants: Height, Weight, and Cardiovascular Monitoring in Clinical Practice

  • Kenneth Towbin, M.D.

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to Dr. Kenneth Towbin, Emotion & Development Branch, Mood & Anxiety Disorder Program, NIMH/NIH, CRC Room 1–3633, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892–1281

Dr. Towbin is an employee of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which is part of the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The opinions and assertions contained in this editorial are the private views of the author and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the NIMH or the Department of Health and Human Services. The author gratefully acknowledges the valuable conversations and exchanges with Dr. Daniel Pine that emerged during the preparation of this editorial

Received 25 April 2008

Disclosure: Dr. Towbin has received research support from the Division of Intramural Research, NIMH.

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 EDITOR'S NOTEAfter Dr. Towbin's editorial went to press but before it could appear in the June Publish Ahead of Print feature of the Journal, the American Heart Association issued a clarification of its April 21, 2008 release (available online at http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.189473/DC1). The most important point in the clarification is that “…it is reasonable for a physician to consider obtaining an ECG as part of the evaluation of children being considered for stimulant drug therapy, but this should be at the physician's judgment, and it is not mandatory to obtain one.” This revised statement has been endorsed by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American College of Cardiology, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality. Additional updates and relevant information are likely to appear by the time that Dr. Towbin's editorial appears in print in the September issue of the Journal. The topics of medication side effects and monitoring are rapidly moving targets, and we hope the Journal will be a venue for constructive scientific exchanges about them. To that end, we look forward to seeing studies that are designed to address these critical questions and provide reliable data. In the interim, we welcome comments from our readers.

PII: S0890-8567(08)60072-6

doi:10.1097/CHI.0b013e31817e0eb9

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Volume 47, Issue 9 , Pages 977-980, September 2008

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