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Summary
Adverse effects of energy drinks: A systematic review
Carmen Montserrat Rodríguez-Cabrera1,2, Begoña García Calderón2, Álvaro García-Muñoz3, Dima Ibrahim-Achi2,4, Aarati Vaswani-Bulchand1,2, Guillermo Burillo-Putze5,6
Affiliation of the authors
1Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. 2Servicio de Urgencias, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain. 3Fundación Canaria Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain. 4Universidad Europea Canarias, La Orotava, Tenerife, Spain. 5Red de Investigación en Atención Primaria de Adicciones (RIAPAD). 6Departamento de Medicina Física y Farmacología, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
DOI
Quote
Rodríguez-Cabrera CM, García Calderón B, García-Muñoz A, Ibrahim-Achi D, Vaswani-Bulchand A, Burillo-Putze G. Adverse effects of energy drinks: A systematic review. Rev Esp Urg Emerg. 2026;5:112–33
Summary
BACKGROUND. Energy drinks (EDs) are beverages with a high caffeine content, whose consumption has increased exponentially worldwide, although their clinical side effects remain poorly understood.
OBJECTIVE. To review the adverse effects on various organ systems potentially associated with energy drink consumption, as reported in the scientific literature.
MATERIAL AND METHODS. We conducted a PubMed search using the MeSH term “energy drink.” Inclusion criteria: case reports involving humans and published in English or Spanish, from January 2000 through December 2024.
RESULTS. Among 117 analyzed cases, 38.46 % involved the cardiovascular system, mainly ischemic events (24.45 %) and arrhythmias (22.23 %). Psychiatric disorders accounted for 19.13 %, followed by neurologic (13.04 %), GI (12.17 %), renal (8.69 %), hematologic (4.35 %), and other conditions (5.22 %), including ophthalmologic and dermatologic disorders.
CONCLUSIONS. Despite their widespread consumption, few cases of adverse events related to EDs have been reported. However, these beverages pose health risks—sometimes severe—primarily cardiovascular, neurologic, and psychiatric. Long-term effects remain poorly understood.
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