Posted on 11/21/2001 1:31:32 PM PST by shield
When I was a kid, there were class clowns, busybodies, and cutups. Today, such children have a "disease," attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a drug to treat it, Ritalin (methylphenidate). The numbers of children being diagnosed with this "disease" has increased 500 percent in just the last ten years and the production of Ritalin in this country has increased by over 700 percent.
What these shocking statistics tell me is that the United States is performing a drug experiment on a massive scale, and millions of American children are the unsuspecting guinea pigs.
Drug Causes Long-Term Brain Changes
Over 6 million American children some as young as 6 years old take Ritalin, and the long-term effects of this stimulant on their still-growing bodies and brains are largely unknown. The prevailing view in the medical establishment is that Ritalin is a short-acting drug, and that once it has been metabolized, it is gone from the body. Yet a recent study suggests that this is not the case.
When researchers at the University of Buffalo administered Ritalin to young rats and later examined their brains, they found that Ritalin triggered a reorganization of the brain similar to that seen with cocaine and amphetamine. As with these drugs of abuse, Ritalin switched on a gene that is linked with addiction. This research comes on the heels of another study showing that rats given Ritalin during their adolescence became more sensitive to the effects of cocaine, and self-administered this drug more frequently than rats that had not been exposed to Ritalin.
It is hardly news to me that Ritalin can be addictive and not just in rats. After all, no less an authority than the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) recognizes its potential for abuse and classifies Ritalin as a controlled substance due to its ability to cause psychic and physical dependence. Ritalin can also cause nervousness, insomnia, nausea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, weight loss, dizziness, palpitations, headaches, and irregular heart rhythms. Is this a drug you want to give to a young, developing child who has difficulty sitting still and paying attention?
There Are Natural Alternatives
I know many doctors, teachers, and even parents will say nothing else works, but I doubt that they've really tried anything else or even been given other options by psychiatrists who so readily prescribe Ritalin. At the Whitaker Wellness Institute, we utilize several non-drug therapies with children to help overcome hyperactivity and attention problems, and none of these therapies has the potential to stunt growth, disrupt sleep, or cause addiction. Here's the protocol we use:
First try to rule out and correct the more predictable causes of learning and behavior problems, including problems at home, lack of sleep, poor diet, and so on. Consider having your child tested for food and environmental allergies. Dr. Doris Rapp's books, Is This Your Child? (Quill/William Morrow, New York, NY, 1991) and Is This Your Child's School? (Bantam Books, New York, NY, 1996) give an excellent overview of the role allergies may play in ADHD.
Two supplements that we have had good success with are dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE) and LECI-PS. DMAE, a natural compound found in anchovies and sardines, was actually used for children with ADHD in the pre-Ritalin days. LECI-PS is a blend of specialized fats called phospholipids, which provide protection and structural support for the brain and facilitate communication between brain cells. Almost 3,000 studies have been carried out on PS, and it has been demonstrated to enhance concentration, attention span, and memory. Pedi-Active A.D.D., by Nature's Plus, contains both of these supplements. It is sold in health food stores. Amino acid formulations that target neurotransmitter activity are also helpful. The key amino acids are GABA, glutamine, and glycine. They are available as stand-alone supplements, but for ease of use I prefer combination formulas like Brain Link, Teen Link, and Anxiety Control. These are available from the Pain and Stress Center of San Antonio, Texas, www.painstresscenter.com.
To learn more about alternatives to Ritalin for children with attention and behavior problems, I urge you to read Dr. Mary Ann Block's book, No More ADHD. It is available in bookstores and on the Internet.
Just say yes to Ritalin!
Parents are being pressured by schools to medicate their kids -- or else.
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By Lawrence H. Diller, M.D.
Sept. 25, 2000 | Public school administrators, long the enthusiastic adherents of a "Just Say No!" policy on drug use, appear to have a new motto for the parents of certain tiny soldiers in the war on drugs: "Medicate or Else!" It is a new and troubling twist in the psychiatric drugs saga, in which public schools have begun to issue ultimatums to parents of hard-to-handle kids, saying they will not allow students to attend conventional classes unless they are medicated. In the most extreme cases, parents unwilling to give their kids drugs are being reported by their schools to local offices of Child Protective Services, the implication being that by withholding drugs, the parents are guilty of neglect.
At least two families with children in schools near Albany, N.Y., recently were reported by school officials to local CPS offices when the parents decided, independently, to stop giving their children medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. (The parents of one student pulled him from school; the others decided to put their boy back on medication so that he could continue at his school.)
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Meanwhile, class-action lawsuits were filed earlier this month in federal courts in California and New Jersey, alleging that Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., the manufacturer of Ritalin, and the American Psychiatric Association had conspired to create and expand the market for the drug, the best known of the stimulant medications that include the amphetamines Adderall and Dexedrine. The suit appears to be much like another lawsuit brought against Novartis in Texas earlier this year.
As a doctor with a practice in behavioral pediatrics -- and one who prescribes Ritalin for children -- I am alarmed by the widespread and knee-jerk reliance on pharmaceuticals by educators, who do not always explore fully the other options available to deal with learning and behavioral problems in their classrooms. Issues of medicine aside, these cases represent a direct challenge to the rights of parents to make choices for their children and still enjoy access to the public education they want for them -- without medication. These policies also demonstrate a disquieting belief on the part of educated adults that bad behavior and underperformance in school should be interpreted as medical disorders that must be treated with drugs.
Unfortunately, I know from the experience of evaluating and treating more than 2,500 children for problems of behavior and school performance that these cases represent only a handful of the millions of Americans who have received pressure from school personnel to seek a "medical evaluation" for a child -- teacher-speak for "Get your kid on Ritalin."
Most often, evaluations are driven by genuine concerns first raised by a teacher or school psychologist. But too frequently the children are sent to me without even a cursory educational screening for learning problems. With a 700 percent increase in the use of Ritalin since 1990, parents have been repeatedly told that their kids probably have ADHD and that Ritalin is the treatment of choice. More and more often, the parents who buck this trend are being told they must put their children in special restricted classrooms or teach them at home.
Patrick and Sarah McCormack (not their real names) came to my office in a panic last year because a school wanted them to medicate their 7-year-old son. Sarah tearfully explained that the principal and psychologist at Sammy's school in an upscale Bay Area town were absolutely clear that the first-grader should be on Ritalin. An outside private psychologist who had previously tested Sammy did not find any learning problems but concluded that he had ADHD and was defiant of authority. She suggested medication. The school psychologist, in his report on Sammy, was straightforward in recommending "psychopharmacological therapy" for the child.
The McCormacks were told, in no uncertain terms, that unless Sammy's behavior changed, he would be transferred to a special class for behavior-problem children at another school or the McCormacks would have to consider alternatives to public education like home schooling.
Next page | I felt optimistic that Sammy could be successful without medication
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Photograph by AP/Wide World
Let's see isn't Nitendo about 10 years old or so? I think it is. But what does Nitendo or such things as video games and the special effects entertainment bombardment have to do with the rise in Ritalin use? Plenty if look beyond ADD ADHD to a more common disorder. Central Auditory Processing Disorders behavioral symptoms are almost identical to those said to be ADD ADHD.
The problem is games like Nitendo, cartoons like Lion King, movies of high drama, and certain audio stimulis set off ADD ADHD behavior in C.A.P.D. kids. The medical condition has been dormant probably since mans time on earth. We are now asking ours and our kids bodies to respond to what is to many the very limits of their abilities to process sensory input. The result of sensory overload in the case of CAPD is mistaken as ADD ADHD.
Common sense says there is a common problem triggering kids and many adults to ADD ADHD symptoms. Seeing that the Ritalin is well over 50 years old it makes more sense to look beyond the Ritalin market as the cause. If drug companies wanted to make a fortune then would it not make more sense for them to make a simular medication improved so to speak that isn't Generic?
I think Ritalin is over used and I think ADD ADHD is ain many cases a gross mis-diagnoses of a pre-existing medical condition likely being Inner Ear damage which is usually permenant in nature.
The positive effects of certain stimulants, including caffeine, on boys who have so much excess energy that they are literally climbing the walls and harming themselves are well researched and proven. That kids are being prescribed drugs like Prozac given the absence of studies of its effects on children, is a little troubling though.
The positive effects of certain stimulants, including caffeine, on boys who have so much excess energy that they are literally climbing the walls and harming themselves are well researched and proven. That kids are being prescribed drugs like Prozac given the absence of studies of its effects on children, is a little troubling though.
I tend to agree with you, however, your statement is a bit too general.
Games like Nintendo, cartoons like Lion King, movies of high drama, and certain audio stimulis can set off ADD ADHD behavior in some C.A.P.D. kids.
The link is not absolute and is, as yet, unproven.
Additionally, this whole discussion, I feel, points up the need for increased attention to pre-natal care for infants in the womb. Special attention must be given to dietary concerns of the fetus. Granted, genetics plays a role. But, to ensure proper physiological development, special attention neeeds to be given to the nutritional aspect of any pregnancy, as well as screening out harmful chemicals that may be introduced by exposure to alcohol, tobacco and even common cold remedies.
The stakes are too high to take the gamble and do otherwise.
I would recommend treating these illnesses with medication instead of letting them run their course as the longer it is left untreated the more potential for damage. Streph can be added to this to and can cause what is called tics. Food allergies and genetics do play heavy into this as allergies and other underlying causes are hereditary.
But in general with sensory interpitation disorders the offending event can be limited to one specific event like a sound at a certain frequency or can involve most all the sensory spectrum both audio & visual. The cognitive symptoms seen with CAPD are secondary to the actual cause of it. Vestibular dysfunction is probably the most common and least diagnosed cause of such other nice problems as Anxiety Disorders. Again a researcher in the 1970's linked it. Look up Harold Levinson MD. A lot of his research in Psychriatry/Neurology is being confirmed outside the mental health circles an in Vestibular research. But Vestibular researchers recognize the cognitive aspects as secondary. In short Shrinks are not ENT Docs or Audiologist and commonly misdiagnose it as ADD ADHD.
BTW I am on disability with General Anxiety Disorder which is both audio and visual sensory triggered. In other words I'm non phobic. My personal experience in this comes from being diagnosed as ADHD over 35 years ago. I had a reaction to Ritalin and was taken off. Other neurological deficits are there as well that support CAPD but in the mid 60's who knew? IN 1994 I went into full anxiety disorder that the doctors couldn't figure out. Anti-Depressants were used and again a reaction took place. I found the answers to the puzzle in DR. Levinsons Book Phobia Free. For the first time the ADHD {he still uses the term} and the General Anxiety Disorder came together as a problem of a single origination.
A couple of years ago HBO did a special on Panic Attacks remember it? I do as someone taped it for me. That documentary was made to set off attacks in a substancial portion of persons with anxiety disorders due to the special effects they employed.
Here is the problem. What you see and hear must be interpited and processed for response from the brain. One of the portions involved in this is called the Fight / Flight portion close to the stem I think. Persons such as myself can watch a sitcom be laughing at the show and at the same time be in pre-attack or in an attack itself. The sensory system is sending danger signals to fight / flight. If you do not respond as the brain sees appropiate for the condition you get cognitive conflict or anxiety attacks. Finding the offending events takes a little detective work but can be done fairly easy by keeping a note pad handy. BTW this is the same situation that gives you such nice things as fear of heights. The brain is designed for survival. It like a computer runs checks on your CNS. Now let's say you are up on the roof and feeling uneasy or even down right cared to go to the edge. Is it a phobia? No! Not if you have Inner Ear damage known or unknown to you. The brain in it's checks and balances see's a problem or danger with you being in a high place. The fear is a defensive response to that. You may not realize you have poor balance but the brain knows the fact well.
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