Interesting reading from FredOnEverything - Ritalin

[Rakkasan]

An old column but still interesting.


Blowing Away Algebra Two

A Price For Drugging Our Kids?

 


Regarding the recent wave of killings by students in high school:

Might the reason for these shootings, just possibly, be Ritalin, the amphetamine-like drug used to pacify millions of fidgety boys?

Yeah, I know. Wild idea. But I'm not the first it has occurred to, and something is sure going on.

We've all wondered, unless we're dead or crazy, why kids in high school have taken to blowing away their classmates with guns. The premier example is the shootings at Columbine, but there have been many others. Why do boys, often from fairly ordinary families, decide to kill the kids in Algebra Two?

The media usually blame guns. (Ever look at the average SATs of students in journalism schools? You wouldn't be surprised.) Whatever one's views of guns, they aren't responsible for the wave of shootings. Guns have been around for centuries, and these shootings didn't occur. Something new is involved.

Another explanation is that divorce, and the advent of unrelenting anti-male propaganda in the schools, have left boys puzzled, alienated, and hostile. They therefore commit multiple murders. This doesn't really make sense. Killing a dozen people isn't a plausible response to being told that Sojourner Truth is more important than Isaac Newton. It's psychotic behavior.

What, then?

Well, depending on whose figures you like, something like twelve percent of boys in grade school and high school take Ritalin for what is called Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD. This means that they fidget, throw spitballs, and disrupt class. Whether such a condition in fact exists in a medical sense may be questioned. When I was a kid, acting up was called "being a boy." Dumb boys, who couldn't keep up, and smart boys, who were bored, particularly did these things. Now these kids are doped with Ritalin to keep them passive.

This is new. Like the shootings.

Ritalin is speed. It's a stimulant--specifically methylphenidate. It's like crystal meth, dex, Ecstasy, and so on. Stimulants in large doses can produce psychotic behavior. They alter brain chemistry. Odd: We tell kids that drugs are bad, and then give them speed.

In the mid-Sixties, I was a very young, very dumb kid in Istanbul, then a point of congregation for young travelers going to India. Countless kids met in the hostels of Sultan Ahmet, and did drugs. A favorite was--yep--Ritalin. Kids took it in large amounts, and discovered The Crash: The foul, angry, despairing depression when the beast wore off. Ritalin. The stuff your kids are on.

There are sites and stories on the Web which allege that the Columbine killers and the rest were on Ritalin, and that the pharmaceutical companies have gone to great lengths to keep this little fact from coming to light. The reason is said to be that a lot of money in profits is involved. Further, sez me, the legal liability, if Ritalin were implicated, would be about seven times the manufacturer's net worth. According to the stories, the medical records of the killers are routinely declared confidential.

True? I don't know. In a lot of years in journalism I've heard companies accused of all sorts of things that didn't happen--defense contractors who were said to be selling $600 toilet seats to the military, that kind of thing. Conspiracy theories are a dime a gross, and most of them are absurd.

But in this case the explanation fits, as nothing else does. The drug is of recent advent in the schools. So are the killings. The literature of pharmacology notes that heavy use of stimulants, including Ritalin, can produce violent behavior. For what it's worth, kids in high school are well known (ask your sprats about it) to sell Ritalin to each other.

What proportion of the killers were on what drugs? How many if any boys respond psychotically to long-term use at moderate dosages? I'd like to know. I don't know how you get around confidentiality of medical records. On the other hand, any parents who refused to answer the question might reasonably be assumed to have something to hide.

One thing is for sure: Something not yet understood is going on. Walking into a class room and killing--bang, brains all over the walls--is not what boys normally do when they get bad grades. If it were, half the male population would be in Leavenworth. We've all had problems as kids. Adolescents have been moody and depressed as long as there have been hormones.

And it isn't television. You don't watch Clint Eastwood splatter away some miscreant and then go kill half a dozen kids.

Maybe it's not Ritalin or any other of the drugs we routinely feed to kids. But I want to know it isn't.

[SLYarnell]

Parents Need to be Cautious About Psychotropic Medications for their Children

By Marilyn LaCourt

It's not a secret that our children are over medicated for psychological problems. In the most severe cases, medication may be the only alternative, but parents need to carefully weigh the advantages of prescribed drugs for their children against the disadvantages.

Kids can find themselves in a no-win situation when their doctor prescribes a drug for them and their parents sanction its use. They can't "just say no" to prescription drugs. When they comply with "doctor's orders," a diagnosis of mental illness and their use of the prescribed drug is documented in their medical records. This information can hurt them. Their medical records are not confidential. Our children's criminal records are more protected than their medical records.

The military has offered many career
opportunities to troubled teens, but does
not accept drug users.  


It's not unusual for a troubled youth, an "at risk" teen, to hope for another chance at life by joining the military. Historically, the military has rescued many that might have lived a long life of regret if not for career or job training obtained in the army, the navy, or the marines. Today, the military will not accept known drug users into its ranks.

The military doesn't differentiate between the use of psychotropic prescription drugs and the use of street drugs. Even a teen who'd taken Ritalin for Attention Deficit Disorder at a very early age will not be accepted.

The youth from Columbine High School lied about his use of prescribed psychotropic drugs on his application form to get into the marines. That was a lie he would not have been able to get away with even if his parents hadn't told. If he had been using illegal street drugs he might have been able to get away with the lie, but lying about the use of psychotropic prescription drugs was a lie with no chance of success. His use of prescription drugs is documented in his medical record. The military isn't the only organization that has access to medical records.

Do we send mixed messages to
our children about drug use?  


Perhaps we ought to take a closer look at the messages we give our youth about drug use. We teach them to say no to street drugs and we hold them accountable when they don't. We caution them about using legal drugs like alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine. We put age restrictions on their ability to purchase beer and cigarettes. When it comes to psychotropic prescription drugs however, we make it very difficult for them to say no and we hold them accountable to take these drugs.

We need to ask ourselves some very important questions. Should children have the right to privacy about their mental health? Should they have the right to say no to prescribed psychotropic drugs? Are they capable of informed consent? Are they old enough to understand the ramifications of being diagnosed mentally ill, taking prescription drugs, and what goes in their records? Should they be held accountable for using prescription drugs when their parents, their doctors, their psychotherapists and their school counselors sanction the use of those drugs?



Marilyn LaCourt, a former marriage and family therapist with twenty-five years of clinical experience is the director of Communication Programs, LLC. She is the originator of the "Live and Let Live" Bully Prevention Program, and the author of the novel "The Prize: a novel about bullies and victims and what drives them", published by American Book Publishing Group soon to be available for purchase at //www.pdbookstore.com  //www.bulliesvictimandchoices.com and //www.lacourt-m.com

[4honor]

SS got the violent tendencies from Adderall (a stimulant derrivative) used in the same way as Ritalin.

[lucky]

I have no "proof" but I think that the use of Ritalin, Adderall and Concerta have contributed significantly to our son's violent outbursts.

[Troubledmom]

I cannot find the study to quote off hand... but the use of Ritilan and other stimulants in Bipolar children has been shown to cause psychotic episodes that last a life time. Bouncing the Bipolar disorder into Skitzophrenia or Skitzoaffective Disorder.

Where bipolar children/adults have an opportunity for very normal lives with the use of medication therapy, the skitzophrenic will always have episodes that will not respond to the medication therapy and flare even while the patient is on medication.

Children from families who have had a bipolar diagnosis in a first or second degree relative need to be VERY cautious when the child is diagnosed ADHD/ADD and medication is prescribed.

ADHD/ADD and Bipolar disorder mimic eachother in the young child and a difference in the two usually is not distinguishable until around age 14-16.

TM

[olanna]

my son's grades went through the roof, he is more sociable, he laughs more and his self-esteem is growing by the day.  He was becoming more and more withdrawn before the concerta.

I tried everything under the sun for four years, and I finally realized that my son's grades, social life and self esteem were at rock bottom.  In my case, this truly was a wonder drug.

[lucky]

We had the same experience when we started with the stimulant meds.  We finally took him off them completely and started a homeopathic remedy in December.  

Unfortunately, he is in a residential treatment center and I am unable to implement other alternative methods (such as dietary changes) and the homeopathic remedy works VERY slowly, so we've had to remove him from the homeopathic remedy and place him on a low dosage of a different stimulant so he can complete his treatment and come home.

We're watching him very carefully and at ANY sign of a personality change for the worse (or other side effects), he'll be taken off the meds again immediately.  As soon as he's out of treatment and home, he'll be taken off of them and we'll go back to the alternative methods.

He's only 11.


[em]Lucky

Lead your life so you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.
- Will Rogers[em]

[4honor]

that they do not TREAT the underlying disease/deficeit. They mask the symptoms so that a child or adult can "function" under a given set of circumstances.

Attention Deficeit with or without hyperactivity is a "basket of symptoms" that can describe a myriad of diseases and disorders.

Heart disease and parasites can create the same symptoms. And no amount of Ritalin, Adderall, Cyclert (linked with liver failure in children), Clonadine (linked to  several deaths when combined with Ritalin), Concerta or any of the other drugs are going to help... they may actually HURT, as in the case of heart disease/defects which will cause the person's health to deteriorate over time if untreated.

Toxins build up over time, but can cause the ADHD symptoms. Do we want to continue to allow the toxin build up instead of curing it?

As NCP's we often find ourselves fighting an up hill battle about CPs drugging our children when we have not been part of the process. The family history these overworked pediatricians take is often one sided or sadly lacking on the NCP's side of the family. (Peds docs see 200-500 patients a month - not conducive to complex diagnoses).

I advocate for a complete work up with looking for all other avenues before "settling" on an ADD/ADHD diagnosis. Often times children are suffering from a combination of easily treated conditions. ADHD is not its own disease (like epilepsy) and is the name of a grouping of symptoms. Doctors and scientists have no specific physiologic proof that ADHD exists. And the medications do not treat any specific biological defeciency. It masks symptoms so that the person can function under set circumstances (concentration in a "quiet" or calm manner under the authority of another person). It makes them good little followers (just what adderall was orignally designed to do -- make good warriors, the ultimate obedience -- march blindly into battle.) Oh, sorry, getting onto a tangent.

Did you know that in a recent study, 7 out of 10 doctors could not detect a 6mm hole in the heart by listening (it's audible when you know what it sounds like)? That is enough to create  ADD symptoms with ocassional ADHD periods. This is a DAY procedure to fix, even for children and yet parents often settle for these masking drugs for YEARS instead of playing detective, finding the underlying cause and eleminating it if possible.

I understand that dealing with the symptoms on a day to day basis can be EXHAUSTING. Sometimes the drugs or another remedies are the only tool available. Sometimes the drugs are causing the escalation of the problem over time. I suggest reading a book bny Sydney Walker III, MD called "The Hyperactivity Hoax". It will get you thinking about what other underlying causes there could be and dealing with them first before determining with your doctor if these medications are right for your child, which are not FDA approved for use in chidlren under a certain age (I thnk it is 8).

[olanna]

That's terrible. I am so sorry to hear that your little man is having such a tough go of it.

I hope he is able to heal..

:(

[olanna]

ADD or ADHD, in turn, has a parasite or heart disease?  Of all the twists I have ever heard, this one takes the cake.   Please tell me where you studied medicine and what kind of medical practice you have.