Arrange pulse and blood pressure checks
Routine cardiovascular monitoring helps your clinician spot medication effects that symptoms alone may miss.
Guideline advice, not formally gradedADHD evidence
Start with the time you have
1 minute
Check your calendar: do you know when your next pulse and blood pressure check is?
5 minutes
Look at your appointment record, and if the next check isn't clear, contact the service in charge.
15 minutes
Write a short note for your clinician on heart symptoms, family history and recent treatment changes.
A plan
Keep monitoring connected to prescribing
- Confirm the monitoring service and schedule.
- Attend the arranged checks and report relevant symptoms.
- Make sure the prescriber receives the results.
How sure the science is
Guideline advice, not formally graded, ADHD evidence
Recommended by ADHD clinical guidelines, but nobody has pooled the trials and graded how sure they are. Guideline advice is a considered judgement, not a measured certainty. Measured in people with ADHD.
NICE NG87 1.7.4 and 1.8.9; evidence review D: consensus schedule, safety evidence mostly very low to moderate quality.
The number, drawn
Why it matters
ADHD medicines can change heart rate and blood pressure, sometimes in different directions. NICE recommends checking both before treatment, before and after each dose change, and every 6 months, though its own evidence review calls that schedule committee consensus, because most trials were short. Monitoring does not mean everyone needs an ECG, and one odd reading does not prove a medicine is unsuitable.
How to do it
- Find out who is responsible for your pulse and blood pressure checks.
- Make sure the checks around any recent changes your clinician made have been done.
- Tell the clinician about fainting, palpitations, or heart problems in you or your family.
- Ask how the results reach the prescriber and when the next check is due.
New chest pain, fainting or significant palpitations need prompt medical assessment. A clinician should interpret readings and decide whether further tests are needed.
Putting it into practice
In real life
- Ask whether your primary care team or the ADHD clinic is doing the next check.
- Bring up any fainting or family heart problems at the monitoring appointment.
Watch out for
- Common mistakeFeeling fine does not replace the scheduled checks. Confirm when yours are due.
- Common mistakeOne reading needs a clinician to interpret it, so share it instead of changing treatment yourself.
Trusted guides
How we rated it
- Evidence grade
- A Moderate or high certainty evidence in people with ADHD, or an explicit ADHD guideline recommendation.
- The number
- Check pulse and blood pressure every 6 months (NICE, 2019)
- Benefit
- 76/100 The benefit score is an editorial prioritization for the general list, weighted by certainty. It is not a prediction of what will happen for you.
- Effort
- Quick win
Sources
- Tier 1 guidelineAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management (NG87), recommendationsNICE, 2019
- Tier 1 guidelineClinical Practice Guideline for the Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of ADHD in Children and AdolescentsAmerican Academy of Pediatrics, 2019
- Tier 1 guidelineADHD evidence review D: pharmacological safety (NG87)NICE, 2018
General information about ADHD, not a diagnosis or an individual treatment plan. Tailoring changes the order of suggestions; it does not assess you. Medication decisions belong with you and a qualified clinician.