There were a lot of articles in the late ‘80s and ‘90s speculating about what effect mood-altering substances like Ritalin would have on kids taking them when they grew up.
Maybe we know, now.
A child I knew of was hyperactive and got into trouble in elementary school. Of course, the first thing suggested was Ritalin. But the parents insisted that the child have a full health work up.
Turns out the child was allergic to some of the most common foods—milk, wheat, corn, peanuts. So the parents changed the child’s diet. This calmed the physically hyperactive behaviors, but the child still disrupted classes in small, passive-aggressive ways. So the mother had the child’s intelligence tested. Whoa, turns out the kid was at the top of the charts.
Fortunately, the school was responsive, allowed the child some free time each day to confer with an older child who was also bored stiff in class but well behaved (and could act as a mentor); and they skipped the child to the next grade. Turns out that’s what teachers had once done for the mother, who, being “a girl”, had never even been considered potentially smart enough to be bored in her age-groups’ classes—until her test scores came back.
Having learned of these experiences, I would never put any child on Ritalin until he or she is thoroughly tested.