Ritalin Gone Wrong

[n2doc]

By L. ALAN SROUFE
Published: January 28, 2012

THREE million children in this country take drugs for problems in focusing. Toward the end of last year, many of their parents were deeply alarmed because there was a shortage of drugs like Ritalin and Adderall that they considered absolutely essential to their children’s functioning.

But are these drugs really helping children? Should we really keep expanding the number of prescriptions filled?

In 30 years there has been a twentyfold increase in the consumption of drugs for attention-deficit disorder.

As a psychologist who has been studying the development of troubled children for more than 40 years, I believe we should be asking why we rely so heavily on these drugs.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/childrens-add-drugs-dont-work-long-term.html

[BootinUp]

1. I refused to do that with my daughter.

The private school was pressuring us to getting her on that stuff back around 1995-96. She will be graduating from college this year. Has always had a very good academic record.

[targetpractice]

2. I was diagnosed with ADD in my late 20's...

The diagnosis answered a lot of longstanding questions I had about myself, despite getting through school and college with good grades... Stimulants (e.g., Ritalin, Focalin, and Dexedrine) have helped me greatly as an adult (professionally and personally), and I'm glad I've had them for the last 20 years. However, I absolutely do not think they should be given to kids. A wandering and imaginative mind is one of the perks of childhood.

[napoleon_in_rags]

17. There's value in ADHD mind even for adults.

As well as costs. I have it, have had meds some times, most times no. I can accomplish much more in the mundane world with help from the meds, but there is a quantitative cost to the power of my intuition.

I don't think chemicals are the complete answer. For years, people with the ADHD genes were fine in the world, the silent world starry nights and plowing fields. But in the time of 24/7 digital stimulation, flashing screens and changing channels, our minds begin to do the same. I think there's value in looking at it as a holistic problem as well.

[aquart]

3. Well, I didn't get mine till I was nearly 50.

When Columbia was threatening to turf me out for wasting their time and my money. Newsweek ran a Syndrome of the Week article on Adult Attention Deficit Disorder and I read it, and began ticking off yeses on a long list of symptoms. Particularly the one about "did all the research but can't write the book." Took the Newsweek to my shrink in October '95. Got my prescription. Got my master's degree May '96. That fast.

[mzteris]

4. Isn't it true that

The drugs don't work if you don't actually have the syndrome?

People who need it, NEED it. And benefit from it.

It is also true that many people / children are misunderstood and at least initially misdiagnosed. Oh. And never ever let a teacher make the "diagnosis'.

BTW - Did you know that exposure to fluorescent lights can cause add/ADHD type symptoms?

[Duer 157099]

6. Re: "The drugs don't work if you don't actually have the syndrome?"

That may be the case for some drugs, but I have a really hard time believing that could be the case for stimulants such as amphetamine.

Amphetamine does what it does to everyone, I would think. It's a stimulant.

[targetpractice]

9. I dunno... I can fall asleep instantly on them...

I have ADD, and I can fall asleep much quicker on a stimulant or caffeine than without. I don't think stimulants affect everyone like that.

[quakerboy]

10. Nope

Some of interact differently with some stimulants. Caffeine, for instance. Where it helps so many students stay awake for long nights studying, It did nothing for me. Its hard to define, but I believe it may even have a bit of a sedative effect on me.

It was handy, sorta, back in school. When I worked in a coffee shop before class. I would make a 4 or 6 or 8 shot espresso, and people bemused by my assertions would bet me that i couldn't drink it and then fall asleep in my first class. I won every time. I may have missed supposedly important class time, but I won money to pay for lunch.

Low doses of Ritalin seem to do the same thing, according to research that I have seen. It has a focusing, calming effect on the ADHD brain.

[Duer 157099]

12. OK point taken

Boy I'm glad coffee doesn't work that way for me, I can drink a cup in the morning and that's it or else I won't get to sleep.

Guess it sort of explains how a stimulant works for hyperactivity. Clearly it can't increase the activity to be effective.

I should look into the biochemistry of this sometime. I wonder if it's known, or it's one of those mysteries they are still trying to figure out.

[quakerboy]

14. Ive heard 2 different explanations

And I have not gotten around to tracking down which, if either, has been proven out scientifically.

Explanation 1: our ADD brains are lacking in some natural stimulants, which when substituted in with caffeine or Ritalin allows us to focus more like a non ADD person.

Explanation 2) Something in the ADD brain responds differently, inversely to some stimulants.

Either way, it is kinda inconvenient. I don't know of any legal stimulants that I can use that are effective, and I don't care to experiment with the illegal ones. This made school more challenging at times. And other things done while tired. It does have its advantages at times though. For myself, as I have grown older, I find that I can do things like type my answer here, watch an Occupy Oakland live stream, and StarTrek DS9 in the background, and retain and appreciate all three at once.

[mzteris]

19. so doesn't that mean your response is "yep"?

Your message kinda proved my point, didn't it?

[quakerboy]

24. My response to yours would be yep.

My response to the person I responded to, who stated "I have a really hard time believing that could be the case for stimulants" would be nope.

Keep on keepin on. As a person with ADD, I resent the popular implication that it is a made up problem, even while I tend to believe that it has become an overdiagnosed "pop disease".

[mzteris]

25. oops sorry

can't follow those lines so well without my glasses on!

I begged my brother and his wife to have their daughter tested. They refused for 18 years. About six months before she graduated from highschool, they finally did and put her on Ritalin or Adderall, I forget which. Her grades became straight A's for the first time ever.

She described it like this, "you know how when you listen to a radio (pre digital days) and you're just off the channel and you can hear several stations at once? That's what my brain is like. When I take the meds, I can focus on JUST ONE STATION at a time! Do you know how great that is?"

[targetpractice]

26. A colleague was diagnosed at 34...

He said taking Ritalin was like putting eyeglasses on for the first time... Major clarity.

The results for me were more subtle... I took my first dose of Ritalin at 7AM one morning (on a day I had to travel to work)... I didn't notice anything, but for the first time ever... I was packed and ready to go with time to spare... I experienced my first relaxed cab ride to LaGuardia ever.

[mzteris]

15. Actually -

The "stimulant" part of the amphetamine CALMS DOWN a kid with ADD/ADHD - it would make a kid WITHOUT the syndrome - extremely hyper.

[BeHereNow]

18. That be TRUE! I can not stand fluorescent lighting-

Makes me hypo-manic and confused.
BHN

[mzteris]

20. which is why

there is often a great deal of disconnect between how the "teacher" says he behaves in school and how the parents see how he behaves at home. One often thinks the other is lying or crazy when they are both correct.

This also bolsters the point for homeschooling for some children who suffer greatly in school settings.

[obamanut2012]

27. You are correct -- it just acts as speed

Which is why many adults use it as a weight-loss "tool," even though it makes them crazy tweakers (see Lindsay Lohan and Demi Moore).

[Taverner]

7. Some kids with a solid diagnosis ADD can benefit from it

But it does get over-prescribed...

[mzteris]

16. true that.

Definitely - mis-prescribed quite often.

And sometimes other factors that can cause symptoms of ADD/ADHD may contribute to that misdiagnosis.

Also, sometimes - though not all - one can mitigate the symptoms of ADD/ADHD through other methods.

[knitter4democracy]

8. There are kids who need the meds, though.

We had one last year who had many home/school/life issues who was terrorizing students and teachers alike. He threatened my life (and meant it), threatened others, masturbated in class, you name it. The doctor diagnosed him with severe ADHD, and after a week on the meds, he was a totally different kid: respectful, focused, happy, and even his handwriting changed.

I have seen kids in whom the meds work miracles. I've seen others where they're a constant trial (this med makes him too sleepy, that one makes him on edge, that other one he's allergic to, etc.) but seem to help. I have also seen kids who didn't need it but just didn't behave well enough for their parents or get perfect grades, and those are the ones I feel sorry for.

We need to get back to balance, but with test scores still being the be-all, end-all, kids are still going to be overmedicated.

[Odin2005]

11. Ritalin is a godsend to me.

It allows me to stay in one piece when otherwise I would be having autistic sensory overload.

[lynne]

13. It was the right choice for my child -

- and that was 25 years ago, before it was over-prescribed. Made a huge difference in her ability to concentrate. Her problems at school went away and her grades improved. She only took it during the school day. The only other time I'd give her one was when she had her hair cut as it enabled her to sit quietly without squirming.

We combined it with therapy and techniques to handle her ADD and she was off the meds by her senior year in high school. She's now a teacher and a mother and is doing wonderfully well.

Ritalin gets a bad rap. When used correctly with a correct diagnosis, it can be amazing.

[CANDO]

21. I cringe when adhd threads appear.

Quite often, those who've never had to deal with it either with a child or themselves, bloviate about it like they are experts. The decision to try meds MUST be after close consultation with a qualified medical professional. For those who cavalierly proclaim their child will never take meds, probably have never even approached the topic with a pediatrician. The same individuals may also be dooming a child to a life of accepting and believing they are a failure. My daughter has gone from nearly failing kindergarten and first grade, to being an honor roll student every semester since being put on meds. She is now in seventh grade.

[Odin2005]

22. There are still a lot of morons that think ADD doesn't exist.

Either because they think that it's the result of kids not getting corporal punishment ("back in my day such kids would be whipped into shape!!!&quot , or by alt-med idiots.

[gulliver]

23. More PE and physical activity might make it much less necessary.

The environment that kids grow up in now doesn't give them everything they need. There is built-in neurological wiring for rough-and-tumble play, for example, that is common to mammals. I learned a lot by reading about Affective Neuroscience through the work of Jaak Panksepp.

I heard something on NPR in a discussion of ADD the other day that made a lot of sense also. The woman (a neurologist or education expert) said that in teaching children, we tend to try to suppress their natural playfulness. They just become too disruptive sometimes. They learn nothing and they make it difficult to teach the other kids. The woman said that sometimes you can give the offending child a toy to play with, and it will solve the problem. The child will play with the toy while listening to the teacher much more attentively and much less disruptively.

I look at it from an evolutionary perspective and wonder how it could be that such a huge percentage of people can be diagnosed with mental illness, upwards of 25%. How does evolution make such big mistake? It makes no sense unless you consider the physical, psychological, and social environment. That is the factor that has been changing. It is not healthy, IMO. We are less and less "free range humans."

The rise of pharmacotherapy is an extremely serious development for our kids. It is part of miasma of factors that needs some sorting out. We have a society that contributes to psychological and physical problems. Then we try to medicate them away with drugs. And there are huge monetary conflicts of interest involved between drug producers, prescribers, distributors, and health insurers. You have to be lucky these days to find an answer to better mental and physical health that is appropriate and is not skewed in some way by myth, money, incompetence, or professional rivalry.

That is one of the reasons I think government health care is becoming more and more necessary. I trust the government to weigh and balance the many factors much more reliably than I do an assortment of conflicting private interests.

I believe in the appropriate use of drugs, by the way. I know a lot of people who have been helped by them. I just think that it is way too hit and miss and that effective psychotherapeutic approaches should be used in combination where appropriate.

I'm also a big believer in PE and recess.