Priapism is a very rare adverse event that can be potentially serious.US Food and Drug Administration-commissioned studies in 2011, indicate that in children, young adults, and adults there is no association between serious adverse cardiovascular events (sudden death, heart attack, and stroke) and the medical use of methylphenidate or other ADHD stimulants.Because some adverse effects may only emerge during chronic use of methylphenidate, a constant watch for adverse effects is recommended.A 2018 Cochrane review found that methylphenidate might be associated with serious side effects such as heart problems, psychosis, and death. The certainty of the evidence was stated as very low.A 2018 review found tentative evidence that it may cause both serious and non-serious adverse effects in children. Overdose
The symptoms of a moderate acute overdose on methylphenidate primarily arise from central nervous system overstimulation; these symptoms include: vomiting, nausea, agitation, tremors, hyperreflexia, muscle twitching, euphoria, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, hyperthermia, sweating, flushing, headache, tachycardia, heart palpitations, cardiac arrhythmias, hypertension, mydriasis, and dryness of mucous membranes. A severe overdose may involve symptoms such as hyperpyrexia, sympathomimetic toxidrome, convulsions, paranoia, stereotypy (a repetitive movement disorder), rhabdomyolysis, coma, and circulatory collapse. A methylphenidate overdose is rarely fatal with appropriate care. Following injection of methylphenidate tablets into an artery, severe toxic reactions involving abscess formation and necrosis have been reported.Treatment of a methylphenidate overdose typically involves the administration of benzodiazepines, with antipsychotics, α-adrenoceptor agonists and propofol serving as second-line therapies. Addiction and dependence
Methylphenidate is a stimulant with an addiction liability and dependence liability similar to amphetamine.
Subsequent studies of the racemates showed that the central stimulant activity is associated with the threo racemate and were focused on the separation and interconversion of the erythro isomer into the more active threo isomer. The erythro isomer was eliminated and now modern formulations of methyphenidate contain only the threo isomer at a 50:50 mixture of d- and l-isomers.Methylphenidate was first used to allay barbiturate-induced coma, narcolepsy and depression. It was later used to treat memory deficits in the elderly. Beginning in the 1960s, it was used to treat children with ADHD based on earlier work starting with the studies by American psychiatrist Charles Bradley on the use of psychostimulant drugs, such as Benzedrine, with then called "maladjusted children". Production and prescription of methylphenidate rose significantly in the 1990s, especially in the United States, as the ADHD diagnosis came to be better understood and more generally accepted within the medical and mental health communities.In 2000, Alza Corporation received US FDA approval to market Concerta, an extended-release form of methylphenidate. Society and culture
Names
Methylphenidate is produced in the United States, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Pakistan, and India. It is also sold in the majority of countries worldwide. : 8–9  Brand names for methylphenidate include Ritalin (in honor to Rita, the wife of the molecule discoverer), Rilatin (in Belgium to avoid a conflict of commercial name with the RIT pharmaceutical company), Concerta, Medikinet, Adaphen, Addwize, Inspiral, Methmild, Artige, Attenta, Cognil, Equasym, Methylin, Penid, Phenida, Prohiper, and Tradea.