Posted on 07/01/2005 5:10:50 PM PDT by neverdem
ROCKVILLE, Md., June 30 - Federal health officials said Thursday that they were looking into a suggestion by a small Texas study that Ritalin and other stimulant drugs given to children might increase their risk of cancer later in life.
A team of experts from the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency went to Texas on May 23 to examine the methods used by the researchers, who found damage to the chromosomes of 12 children who took Ritalin for three months.
Ritalin, which entered the market in 1955, has been used for decades to treat children for attention or hyperactivity problems.
Dr. David Jacobson-Kram of the Office of New Drugs at the food and drug agency said that the study, by researchers at the University of Texas and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, had flaws in its methodology but that its results could not be dismissed. Drugs that are known to cause cancer cause similar chromosomal changes, Dr. Jacobson-Kram said.
But other scientists cautioned that the study was far too small and its finding far too preliminary to cause alarm. The study did not include a comparison group of children who had not taken Ritalin. And federal officials said there was no reason for children currently taking Ritalin or other stimulants to stop taking them.
Dr. Lawrence Greenhill of Columbia University, an expert on Ritalin and other stimulant drugs used for children, questioned why the government was devoting so many resources to following up on the study's findings. Dr. Greenhill, like many other academic researchers, serves as a consultant for companies that make the drugs.
Several research teams are trying to reproduce the study on a larger scale, using better controls. And federal officials are examining millions of health records to determine...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Why, why why it just can't be----public school teachers have been clamoring for years that virtually all boys need to be pumped full of ritalen--and public school teachers never lead us astray.
Even if it doesn't cause cancer, giving psychoactive drugs to millions of children is criminal child abuse.
No??? Kids doing speed is bad? I can't believe it? I thoght speed was totally safe? I think everyone should do blow starting at the age of 6 years. Then we'd all be one happy coked out village.
Tom Cruise was right. Scientology here I come!
A sick state-of-affairs.
==Why, why why it just can't be----public school teachers have been clamoring for years that virtually all boys need to be pumped full of ritalen--and public school teachers never lead us astray.
If they were empowered a little more by parents and our failed school admins (ie discipline) they wouldn't be clamoring for drugs like ritalin. Sad, but true.
Don't ask me how as we've been in Maine (friggin blue state GAH) since Dec, our sons are 5 and 8, and to top it off the 8 yr old is high functioning autistic. Before that we were in VA Beach (can you tell we're a military family?) and it wasn't suggested there either. Lucky us huh? *L*
I'm sure that if I were in elementary school today they would have given me Ritalin. If I had taken it there is no way that I would have made any of the academic achievements I have today or have my current occupation. There is a reason the US Marine Corps doesn't accept any candidate who has taken Ritalin.
That's right, no alarm here... Just keep drugging the kiddos. It's all perfectly safe. The government says so.
Several years ago, our presence was "requested" by the Principle at my son's school. He was in 4th grade. The "Principle" was new - first year.
He immediately launches into the spiel, "your son is hyper-active, the teacher can't control him, yada, yada...we think he needs medication.
My response was, "Gee, that is strange. This is his fourth year in this school, every teacher he's had has nothing but praise for how well behaved he is. Have you given thought to the possibilty that perhaps this new teacher has a problem with kids?" The schmuck actually said, "No..no..that is not possible, we hire only the most experienced teachers!"
The disussion went to hell right quick....
"Experience? His teacher is 23 years old! What the hell is your standard of "experience"? - quite low, obviously!" "My son is a normal 8 yr old. boy. Your problem is no experience in the class room. That is not my son's fault. This is the last time you ever mention "medication" to me when talking about my son. THE LAST time - DO YOU understand me? NO ONE gives my son ANYTHING - DO YOU understand me? Should that happen, I am coming right to you, no one else, YOU!" "DO YOU understand this extrremely pissed off parent?"
"I don't know the state laws by heart, but I'd bet you can't do anything without my permission - this is not the East coast. You try anything with my boy and I will be all over you, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
That POS was gone the next year.
Too bad, because I really wanted to squeeze his neck until his eye balls popped out.
LVM
I checked out DOD's policy on the net one day. Prospective enlistees have to swear that they haven't had Ritalin for at least one year. I think that may also be true for antidepressants.
1 year? Hmmmm...I've heard from others that it was ever. Has the policy changed recently?
When will someone have the guts to provide data relative to the incidence of Ritalin in public schools versus the incidence in private schools?
And beyond that, why would you want to stigmatize a child with the label: "You're not right. You need medication."
Private Christian school teachers like it also!
I know that the private Christian school that my son was at convinced several parents to have their kids put on Ritalin.
My son's 2nd grade teacher there said that she thought my son had ADD.
I pulled him out of the school, and then had him tested at the public school. He actually had a very high attention span and was gifted.
I told some of the parents at the private school, but they continued to keep their kids in the private school and medicate their kids.
I don't know, but I checked a DOD site and a site for ADHD.
When I was in the fourth grade there were no drugs to control students. There was a nun with a yardstick made of 1/2" by 2" oak. She knocked the behavior problem right out of you.
But that was then, and this is now.
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