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    BEIJING, Feb.10 (Xinhuanet) --A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted Thursday to put the most severe possible on drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

    Such druggs include adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, Methylin and Metadate.

    While not binding, the advisory panels' recommendations usually are followed.

    The action was prompted by an FDA review prepared for the advisory panel, which indicated the medications might have played a role in 25 deaths and 54 cases of serious medical problems between 1999 and 2003.

   The problems included heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, palpitations and the overly rapid heartbeats known as arrhythmia.

    Nineteen of the deaths involved children, and an accompanying FDA analysis suggested the risk of sudden cardiac death in children taking ADHD drugs was 1.5 to 2.5 times greater than in the general population.

    Although the cases of such adverse events account for fewer than one in 1 million, the panel voted 8-7 to recommend a warning because millions of people could be affected. One member of the panel abstained.

    Health practitioners, however, expressed reservations over the FDA panel's decision.

    "In my opinion, this panel's reaction was too strong," said Dr. Louis Kraus, chief of child psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center.

    Dr. Sharon Hirsch, a child psychiatrist at the University of Chicago Hospitals, advised patients and parents to remain calm and said "there's no reason to stop your medication."

    Dr. Joyce Kocher, a child psychiatrist in the northern suburbs, thinks the benefits of these medications far outweigh the risks. "If your kid can't color, can't read, can't sit still, is in timeout all day, is failing and getting held back¡ªwhat's the benefit in that?" she said.

   People with ADHD are impulsive and have problems concentrating. By some estimates, 6 percent of children and 2 percent of adults have the condition, though debate has raged for more than a decade over whether ADHD is overdiagnosed and drugs for it overprescribed. More than 2.5 million children and 1 million adults take ADHD medications.

    (Agencies)