ADHD in Children Health Center

Sudden Death in 12 Kids on ADHD Drug Adderall

What Parents Should Know

If your child is taking Adderall or Adderall XR, what should you do?

WebMD asked Leslie Rubin, MD, director of developmental pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine.

"Everything we take has the potential for causing us grievous bodily harm, as innocuous as it may appear," Rubin tells WebMD. "We should really, whenever we take a medicine, be quite cognizant of its potential for causing harm."

But, Rubin says, there are excellent reasons to take these risks.

"When a medicine has been used widely and effectively and routinely, we should always be very cautious interpreting things like these Adderall reports," he says. "Taking a drug off the market for something like this is a mistake. Because a lot of people benefit from this drug. They depend on it for their day-to-day function."

If parents whose children are taking Adderall are worried, Rubin says, they have two basic options.

The first is to call their child's doctor and, with his or her approval, to stop giving them the drug until the doctor can give the child's heart a clean bill of health.

The other option is to continue giving the child Adderall, but to schedule an appointment with the child's doctor in order to discuss alternatives to Adderall treatment.