Wednesday, July 30, 2008

EKG's and ADHD: Common Sense Prevails

I'm so glad 'dem der pediatricians set us here cardiologists straight.

Dang, I had no idear there was so many of 'dem der corrections to the original announcement about the need for EKG's before administering ADHD drugs.

Nice to know some common sense could prevail...

-Wes

3 comments:

Rogue Medic said...

"According to the academy, sudden heart-related deaths occur in about four out of 2.5 million U.S. children on stimulants each year, versus between 8 and 62 such deaths yearly among all U.S. children."

Clearly these medications protect against "sudden heart-related deaths." ECGs should be required to justify NOT medicating kids with these obviously cardioprotective medications. :-)

Dr. Rob said...

So do you agree with the AHA or with the AAP on this one? I was under the impression you were more on the AAP side. As a pediatrician/internist, I absolutely find the recommendations goofy. The false positive to true positive ratio is extremely high and makes the test basically worthless.

DrWes said...

Rob-

As I've said, I think the AAP got it right this time for the reasons you mention...