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Maybe the guys doing the prescribing need a dose or twoSubmitted by Prometheus 6 on March 31, 2006 - 12:27pm.
on Health Prescribing of hyperactivity drugs is out of control THE figures are mind-boggling. Nearly 4 million Americans, most of them children and young adults, are being prescribed amphetamine-like stimulants to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Up to a million more may be taking the drugs illegally. Now, amid reports of rare but serious side effects, leading researchers and doctors are calling for a review of the way ADHD is dealt with. Many prescriptions are being written by family doctors with little expertise in diagnosing ADHD, raising doubts about how many people on these stimulants really need them. Just as worrying, large numbers of children who do have ADHD are going undiagnosed. Both trends could lead to problems with drug dependency, argue specialists in addiction. "There has to be a re-evaluation and reassessment of the extent to which there is proper prescription," says Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland. Last week, the debate intensified, following two meetings of advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). First, the agency's Pediatric Advisory Committee suggested that parents and doctors should be warned about the risk of ADHD drugs triggering hallucinations. This followed a review of evidence of the drugs' psychiatric side effects, including disturbing hallucinations often involving worms, snakes or insects, experienced by up to 5 per cent of children taking the drugs. In February, a separate FDA panel recommended that they should carry the most prominent type of safety warning, following 25 reports of sudden deaths from heart problems (New Scientist, 18 February, p 7). Another FDA committee last week voted to delay an application for a drug previously used to treat sleep disorders to be marketed for ADHD. The drug, modafinil, has less potential for abuse and addiction, but the FDA's Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee wants to see more evidence proving its safety before backing the application (see "Alternative treatments for ADHD"). Stimulants such as methylphenidate, marketed by Novartis as Ritalin, have been used to treat ADHD for decades. As well as increasing arousal and heart rate, the drugs allow people who have difficulty concentrating to focus on tasks more effectively. Their use has exploded in recent years, especially in the US, where prescription rates are several times higher than across most of the developed world - in part because US doctors tend to use a broader definition of the condition. I agree completely with the poster above. It is disturbing how many people involved in Education (not psychologists or even pediatricians with an expertise in ADHD) so cavalierly diagnose your child without having even met your child. Case in point, I was talking to an administrator via the phone and I told her I was strongly opposed to medication. This woman had the nerve to compare ADHD (as if he has had this diagnosis) to Diabetes. She goes on to state that if I wouldn't deny my child medication for Diabetes, why would I deny him medication for ADHD? Umm, because he hasn't been diagnosed, he is SEVEN and those drugs are short-term fixes! The last time I checked, ADHD was not deadly as is the non-treatment of Diabetes, however, the drugs used to treat ADHD are mind-numbling scary! Kids are committing suicide, hallucinating or just plain zombies on those drugs. And another area that is overlooked is the fact that most of these children who are prescribed need to constantly re-adjust their dosages and meds! Hello, medical establishment, the drugs are ineffective as after a year or so, many do not work, ergo the switching, swapping, combo cocktails, you all are so willing to prescribe. And as for long-term solutions, how will a child learn to adapt and overcome their circumstances when drugs are used as their crutches! Will the child have to stay on the drugs for the rest of their life because no other areas are explored that may not lead to immediate improvement in the short-term but lead to more effective and lasting improvements over the long-haul? And educators wonder why there is so much hostility towards them. But I can't help to reserve certain disdain for parents who are all to eager to medicate their children, as well. As the above poster mentioned, this is a new trend and do we really know the long term prognosis for DOPING our children so heavily for so long? I don't think we do! His reading tutor ALSO suggested that I medicate him, mind you, he has had no diagnosis of ADHD! He is SEVEN years old! How anyone with any sanity can prescribe narcotics to a seven year old is BEYOND ME! Yet this same reading tutor offers him unhealthy snacks FULL of sugar, but hell, let's combat all the sugar and preservatives with drugs, right? I think it is a crime what is happening to our children at the behest of educators, parents, the medical establishment, including pharma. companies. I can understand medicating some children over 12. But these folks treat the symptoms and then conclude all is well once the symptoms improve!
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This site best viewed with a jaundiced eye
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{I had a scheduled parent teacher conference at noon today. Three young white female behaviour modification specialists showed up for the meeting - the school's administration is still smarting from the set to we had a few weeks ago - and they call themselves hedging against another clash by making this conspicuous display. Unfortunately, one of the young fembots spoke to "politics of victimization" in reference to one of my son's best friends and classmates whose mother withdrew him from the school two weeks ago.}
I am about a hair's breadth away from launching a total onslaught against this school's charter. There was a time when I wouldn't think twice about going defcon 4 and causing however much collateral damage happens from a massive first strike. My quandry today is rooted in the self-interested fact that I want the school to reform and to thrive, yet, there are stiff-necked elements in the administration that are happy as clams with the status quo and seem to want to fully test my resolve.
Bottom line, there is a multi-layered set of interlocking institutional funnels channelling the drugs to the kids and the kids to the drugs......, and none of this shyte existed when I was a child.