ADHD medications come with safety benefits, but this link could be weakening

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-06-26 01:00

Australia; International; VIC

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The prescription of ADHD medications is linked to a range of safety benefits such as reductions in self harm and unintentional injury, but some of these links weaken as more people are getting prescriptions, according to Australian and international research. Studying nearly 250,000 people prescribed ADHD medications in Sweden between 2006-2020, the researchers found medication prescriptions were consistently linked to a reduced risk of self-harm, unintentional injury, road accidents and crime. However, they say as the prevalence of prescriptions rose from 0.6% to 2.8% throughout the study, the link between medication and reduced injury, crashes and crime weakened, which the researchers say likely is likely a result of people with less severe ADHD now being diagnosed and treated.

Media release

From: JAMA

Increased Prescribing of ADHD Medication and Real-World Outcomes Over Time

About The Study: In this study, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication remained associated with reduced risks of several serious real-world outcomes (self-harm, unintentional injury, traffic crashes, and crime). However, the magnitude of these associations appears to have decreased alongside rising prescription rates over time. Thus, it is important to regularly evaluate medication use in different patient populations.

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Research JAMA, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: JAMA Psychiatry

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Funder: The project has received funding from Swedish Council for Health,Working Life andWelfare (2022-01111), Swedish Research Council (2024-02766). Dr Li was supported by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation (20230452), the Söderström König Foundation, Fredrik och Ingrid Thurings Stiftels, the Karolinska Institutet Research Foundation, and Stiftelsen Sven Jerrings Fond. Dr D’Onofrio was supported by a grant from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (DIG-1-037-19). Dr Larsson acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (965381), the Swedish Research Council (2022-01119), and the Swedish Brain Foundation (FO2021-0115; FO2022-0327).

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