The Department Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced plans to conduct the most comprehensive study in history into heightened risks of serious cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke, from use of prescription drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Working in a collaborative effort, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will analyze data on some 500,000 children and adults known to have taken ADHD medications looking for incidences of heart-related problems.

The study was spurred by the tendency of ADHD medications to increase heart rate and blood pressure, the effects of which may differ in children and adults.

"Case reports have described adverse cardiovascular events in adult and pediatric patients with certain underlying risk factors who receive drug treatment for ADHD, but it is unknown whether or not these events are causally related to treatment," said Gerald Dal Pan, M.D., director of FDA's Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology in a press release.

HHS projects the study should take about two years to complete.

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