I predict that over prescription of ADHD medication in the US is going to viewed as a massive public health misstep in 40 years.
Thus far, the only serious side effects I’m aware of are:
* A slight increase in cardiovascular-related conditions in the first few years after starting stimulant medication. This can be mitigated to a large extent by not using stimulants if your resting heart rate or blood pressure are already elevated.
* An increased risk of manic episodes for people already predisposed to bipolar disorder, again, for stimulant medications. If someone in your family has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, don’t use a stimulant to treat ADHD.
Here’s [0] a meta-study on the subject.
But also that, in tandem, there will be acknowledgement of under diagnosis of Type 1 Autism. Precisely because it is so diagnostically evasive "and can mimic ADHD". However, the correction that I'd make of the quoted phrase is that, likely, inattentive ADHD wholly is misdiagnosed Type 1 Autism in my opinion. And that ADHD will come to be seen as Spectrum disorder, for which certain manifestations (ie: not inattentive) do not necessarily crossover with the Autism part of the (soon to be wider) Spectrum.
How that might look, in families, is that those with non-autistic ADHD individuals could be observed to more often contain autistic individuals.
See, for example:
https://scitechdaily.com/developmental-twist-new-study-links...