Feds Recommend Warnings on ADHD Drugs [View All]

[DoYouEverWonder]

Feb 9, 2006

WASHINGTON - Ritalin and other stimulant drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder should carry the strongest warning that they may be linked to an increased risk of death and injury, federal health advisers said Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted in favor of the "black box" warning after hearing about the deaths of 25 people, including 19 children, who had taken the drugs. The vote was 8-7, with one abstention.

One committee member, Dr. Curt Furberg, a professor of public health sciences at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said it would be "inappropriate, unethical behavior" not to disclose that there was uncertainty about the safety of the drugs.

The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisory committees but typically does.

Doctors prescribe the drugs to about 2 million children and 1 million adults a month.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209/ap_on_he_me/attention_deficit;_ylt=A9FJqYn_vutDgnMBigOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-


There were so many people who wanted me to put my son on these drugs before we found out he was dyslexic and even after that. I refused because I knew he wasn't ADD and I also knew there were better ways to deal with his behavior issues, ie discipline. I enrolled him in Aikido and sent him to an alternative school and he's doing great.