Posts Tagged ‘attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder’
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Huffington Post
By Bruce E. Levine
May 20, 2010
Children covered by Medicaid are far more likely to be prescribed antipsychotic drugs than children covered by private insurance, and Medicaid-covered kids have a higher likelihood of being prescribed antipsychotics even if they have no psychotic symptoms. This is reported in the May19, 2010 Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) article, “Studies Shed Light on Risks and Trends in Pediatric Antipsychotic Prescribing.”
Researchers at Rutgers University and Columbia University found that children and adolescents covered by Medicaid were four times as likely as those with private insurance to receive an antipsychotic in 2004. Among those aged six to 17 years who were covered by Medicaid, 4.2 percent were prescribed at least one antipsychotic drug. In contrast, among those in this same age group who had private insurance, less than 1 percent were prescribed an antipsychotic. Nearly half of these Medicaid-covered pediatric patients receiving antipsychotic drugs had nonpsychotic diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or some other disruptive behavior disorder. In contrast, of the privately insured pediatric patients receiving antipsychotics, about one fourth were diagnosed with ADHD or some other disruptive behavior disorder.
The current issue of JAMA also reports another troubling study published earlier this year in the journal Pediatrics. This study, conducted by Robert Penfold of the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, examined the use of the antipsychotic Geodon (ziprasidone) in pediatric patients covered by Medicaid in Michigan in 2001. Of the pediatric patients who had been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and had received Geodon, only 53.3 percent actually had a diagnosis of psychosis. The other children who received Geodon had one or more of the following diagnoses: 24.1 percent were diagnosed with explosive personality disorder, 17.6 percent were diagnosed with depressive disorder, and 13.1 percent of these kids who were prescribed Geodon had oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). What exactly does it take to get an ODD diagnosis?
Read entire article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-e-levine/psychiatric-drugs-and-poo_b_583568.html
« Return to news items
Tags: ADHD, antipsychotic, antipsychotic drugs, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Bruce E. Levine, child drugging, Columbia University, diagnosed, diagnosis, disruptive behavior disorder, explosive personality disorder, Geodon, JAMA, Journal of American Medical Association, Medicaid, ODD, oppositional defiant disorder, pediatric patients, Pediatrics, poor kids, private insurance, psychiatric disorders, psychosis, psychotic symptoms, Rutgers University, Trends in Pediatric Antipsychotic Prescribing, ziprasidone
Posted in News | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
The Daily Mail
By Rowenna Davis
May 12, 2010
Leon Perry is in trouble for insulting his teacher. Fidgeting on a chair in the assistant head’s office of Queen’s Park Community School in North London, the 13-year-old admits he’d skipped his medication.
‘I can get a bit hyperactive when I come off,’ he says. ‘I’ll be honest, I can be violent. When I’m on my tablet, I think before I act; when I’m off, I think after. If teachers get on my nerves, I’ll say what I want. When I’m on my tablet, I can’t be bothered.’
Leon has been taking Ritalin - known as the ‘chemical cosh’ - since he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when he was six.
He’s not alone. According to data obtained under Freedom of Information legislation, there has been a 65 per cent increase in spending on drugs to treat ADHD over the past four years. Such treatments now cost the taxpayer more than £31million a year.
The figures do not include private prescriptions, and may include some sufferers of narcolepsy as well as adult ADHD sufferers, but these are only a tiny minority.
With such a huge increase in figures, a growing number of academics are raising concerns that some teachers are either recommending these drugs as an easy alternative to dealing with bad behaviour, or simply turning a blind eye to those on medication when they should be investigating the root cause of their problems. In the worst cases, schools have been known to put significant pressure on students or their parents to seek the medication.
Take Leon. He insists he didn’t want to start taking Ritalin. His mum didn’t want him to, either. It was his junior school that gave him an ultimatum: go on the drug or leave the school. Seven years later, he relies on Concerta Exel - a slow-release form of Ritalin - to control his moods.
‘I know it helps me in some ways, but I hate taking it,’ he says, ‘There are days when I deliberately avoid it. You just don’t feel yourself, you feel so drained out. It makes you feel disgusted and down. Like you’ve got no soul or something. My mum doesn’t want me to take it, but what can she do? She wants me to get an education.’
The drugs most frequently prescribed for ADHD patients are atomoxetine, dexamfetamine and methylphenidate 3 - the last most commonly known by the brand name Ritalin.
Read entire article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1277674/Ritalin-used-control-unruly-pupils.html
« Return to news items
Tags: ADHD, atomoxetine, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, chemical cosh drugs, child drugging, Concerta, dexamfetamine, methylphenidate, prescriptions, Ritalin, schools
Posted in News | No Comments »
Monday, May 3rd, 2010
The use of powerful drugs to treat younger and younger patients has gone far beyond disturbing.
The Portland Press Herald
By Leigh Donaldson
May 3, 2010
The age of children being medicated with prescription psychiatric drugs is getting younger and more widespread every year.
According to a 2010 study of data on more than a million children reported by American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s journal, the use of powerful anti-psychotics with privately insured U.S. children, ages 2 through 5, doubled between 1999 and 2007.
In the 2007 study, the most common diagnoses of anti-psychotic treated children were pervasive developmental disorder or mental retardation (28.2 percent), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (23.7 percent) and disruptive behavior disorder (12.9 percent).
Fewer than half of drug-treated children received a mental health assessment, a psychotherapy visit, or a visit with a psychiatrist, during the year of anti-psychotic drug use.
“Anti-psychotics, which are being widely and irresponsibly prescribed for American children — mostly as chemical restraints — are shown to be causing irreparable harm.” Vera Hassner Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, warns. She further asserts that long-term use of these drugs can have hazardous effects on cardiovascular and metabolic systems.
Dr. Peter Breggin, founder of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology and author of “Medication Madness,” characterizes anti-depressants, stimulants, mood stabilizers and anti-psychotic substances as bathing the brains of growing children with agents that threaten the normal development of the brain.
Highlighting the controversial nature of medicating American children is the recent death of Rebecca Riley, a 4-year-old Boston girl diagnosed with ADHD and pediatric bipolar disorder at 28 months of age.
According to a medical examiner, she died from the effects of a combination of Clonidine, a blood pressure medication prescribed for ADHD, Depakote, an anti-seizure and a mood stabilizer for her bipolar disorder, as well as a cough suppressant and an antihistamine.
Read entire article: http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/psychiatric-drugging-of-american-children-is-cause-for-alarm_2010-05-03.html
« Return to news items
Tags: ADD, ADHD, antidepressants, antipsychotics, attention deficit disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, chemical restraints, child drugging, clonidine, Depakote, mood stablizers, Peter Breggin, psychiatrist, psychotherapy, Rebecca Riley, stimulants
Posted in News | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
National Post
By John Baglow
April 27, 2010
Some time back I remarked on a new childhood “affliction” to be dealt with by the judicious use of drugs and psychiatrists: “Oppositional Defiant Disorder.” If you had four or more of the following as a child, you were ODD, and I guess I was, too:
1. often loses temper [check]
2. often argues with adults [check]
3. often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults’ requests or rules [check]
4. often deliberately annoys people [check]
5. often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior
6. is often touchy or easily annoyed by others
7. is often angry and resentful
8. is often spiteful or vindictive
To qualify as ODD, those “disturbances” must cause “clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning.” But of course that can mean almost anything. Talking back. Fighting back. Asking a lot of questions. Standing up for yourself in a hostile environment.
In those days teachers and jocks simply bullied you into submission. Now it’s all white coats and Ritalin.
Creativity? Lateral thinking? Oddball hypotheses? Questioning authority? For goodness sake, tell your kids to leave it at home, for their own good. That’s what the Internet is for.
In any case, it looks as though I was onto something. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is going through another update. The first version of the DSM, published in 1952, listed 128 disorders (including homosexuality, delisted in 1973). DSM-IV, appearing in 1994, listed 357–almost three times the original number. And DSM-5, scheduled for publication in 2013, may swell the list even more.
Dr. Allen Frances chaired the committee that wrote DSM-IV. He has, to put it mildly, had a change of heart, after having had more than a quarter-century to observe the human tragedies that resulted:
Frances says [DSM-IV] unintentionally contributed to vast and sudden increases in the diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism and childhood bipolar disorder (manic depression), after it made changes in those definitions.
Rates of bipolar disorder alone jumped 40-fold in the U.S. after the definition was broadened to suggest that children don’t have to experience the typical manic symptoms seen in adults to be diagnosed bipolar — and that depression in kids can be a persistent irritable mood.
Read entire article: http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/04/27/john-baglow-message-to-disease-industry-that-s-why-they-call-it-acting-like-a-child.aspx
« Return to news items
Tags: ADHD, Allen Frances, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar, child drugging, depression, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders, dsm, DSM-5, manic symptoms, ODD, oppositional defiant disorder, psychiatric drugs, psychiatrists, Ritalin, stimulants, temper
Posted in News | No Comments »
Monday, April 26th, 2010
EmaxHealth
By Deborah Mitchell
April 26, 2010
Adderall and Adderall XR, schedule II controlled substances composed of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, have several Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved uses. However, both prescribed and recreational use of these drugs, especially among young people, is associated with serious, life-threatening side effects.
The FDA requires that all amphetamines, including Adderall and Adderall XR (the long-acting version of Adderall), carry a black box warning, which means that medical research has demonstrated that these drugs carry a significant risk of serious, or even life-threatening, adverse effects. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, both of these drugs have a “high potential for abuse” that “may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.” In an attempt to stem such abuse, the federal government limits the amount of these amphetamine drugs that can be manufactured each year.
Adderall is a central nervous system stimulate approved by the FDA to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. Studies show that the side effects associated with Adderall XR include abdominal pain, anorexia (loss of appetite), asthenia (feeling of weakness), diarrhea, dizziness, dry mouth,elevated blood pressure, fever, headache, heartburn, infection, (including urinary tract infection), insomnia, nausea, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), and weight loss.
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders notes that “Amphetamine, as with cocaine, can induce symptoms similar to those seen in obsessive disorder, panic disorder, and phobic disorders.” The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual notes that “high doses and long-term use of amphetamines are associated with erectile disorder and other sexual dysfunction. Use of Adderall can also induce schizophrenic-like states in children who are taking prescribed doses, according to The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
Read entire article: http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/adderall-associated-serious-life-threatening-side-effects.html
« Return to news items
Tags: abdominal pain, Adderall, ADHD, American Psychiatric Association, amphetamine, anorexia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, cocaine, dextroamphetamine, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders, diarrhea, dizziness, dry mouth, elevated blood pressure, FDA, fever, Food and Drug Administration, headache, heartburn, infection, insomnia, nausea, side effects, tachycardia, weight loss
Posted in News | No Comments »
Monday, April 12th, 2010
The Purdue University Calumet Chronicle
By Andrea Drac
April 12, 2010
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA)’s survey the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2008 15.2 million Americans age 12 and older had taken a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year.
Addiction to and the abuse of prescription drugs, also known as “pill popping,” has become a national trend. According to Ivan Budisin, a psychologist at the PUC Counseling Center, pill popping has become a trend due to the fact that prescription drugs are becoming more available.
“In 1991, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse there were 40 million orders for prescription drugs sent out,” said Budisin. “In 2001, 180 million orders were sent out. It’s a huge increase.”
According to an article on the NIDA web site entitled, “Prescription Drug Abuse – Topics in Brief,” the three most commonly abused classes of prescription drugs are Opioids such as Vicodin, which are often prescribed to treat pain; Central Nervous System (CNS) depressants such as Valium, which are used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders; and stimulants such as Ritalin, which are prescribed to treat certain sleep disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Budisin said that prescription drug addiction is most popular among high school and college students due to easy access, either by taking their own prescription drugs for non-medicinal purposes, or taking someone else’s prescription drugs for non-medicinal purposes. Another reason for addiction has to do with cost; prescription drugs do not cost a lot of money, so it is easy to afford.
There is also a huge misconception involved in prescription drug abuse and addiction, which makes it such a huge trend.
“The misconception is that prescription drugs aren’t dangerous because a doctor gives them out,” said Budisin.
Read entire article: http://media.www.pucchronicle.com/media/storage/paper1082/news/2010/04/12/News/Pill-Popping-3903522.shtml
« Return to news items
Tags: abuse, addiction, ADHD, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dangerous drug, National Institute of Drug Abuse, NIDA, pill poppers, pill popping, prescription drug use, Ritalin, sedatives, sleep disorders, stimulants, tranquilizers, Valium
Posted in News | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
GoozNews
April 6, 2010
Do you have ADHD? Take this quiz (courtesy of this morning’s Wall Street Journal) to find out. If you’re like me, you may discover that you do. Of course, you may want to ask yourself this question after taking the quiz: Who isn’t easily distracted; doesn’t allow their mind to wander during boring conversations; or doesn’t engage in endless multi-tasking while leaving many projects unfinished?
The accompanying article claims that 10 million Americans suffer from this “disease,” yet only a quarter are diagnosed. Is there a pill for this disorder? You bet there is. It’s called speed when sold on street corners. The pharmaceutical industry gives them other names, like Strattera, Ritalin, Concerta.
Just when economists from the left and right are joining together to encourage Americans to slow down and share the work to cope with unemployment (see this op-ed by Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute in the Los Angeles Times), Rupert Murdoch’s daily chronicle of the American dream suggests we buckle down, stay focused and work harder than ever.
While the quiz cautions against self-analysis, I was left wondering: Who was the psychiatrist behind this medicalization of our collective social dysfunction? A quick Google search of Ivan K. Goldberg in New York City turns up a few flattering posts on Daniel Carlat’s blog (Goldberg turned down a Schering-Plough offer to become a shill), but also this curious link.
Read entire article: http://www.gooznews.com/node/3316
« Return to news items
Tags: ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Concerta, disease mongering, Ivan K. Goldberg, pills, psychiatrist, Ritalin, speed, stimulants, Strattera
Posted in News | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
Wicked Local
By Billerica Minuteman
April 2, 2010
Have you ever imagined what the world would have been like if Albert Einstein had been on Ritalin? Would we ever have unlocked the mysteries of the universe and developed the technologies we depend on today? Well, had Einstein been born a century later, I’m certain that his genius would have been wholly misunderstood.
I make this supposition because this man, who possessed such a masterful mind, spoke not a word of English until he reached the age of four and was unable to read until his seventh birthday. As a student, Einstein was considered deficient. His teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift in foolish dreams.” In fact, he was alternately expelled and then refused admittance to the Zurich Polytech Institute.
It’s easy to see what sort of fate Einstein would have suffered had he been a student in today’s culture. He surely would have been labeled “Learning Disabled” and his parents would have sat through school conference after school conference where the teachers and guidance counselors complained that he was disruptive and unable to stay “on task.” Ultimately, someone would have advised that he begin taking Ritalin so that he could become a “better citizen and student”.
What’s even more shocking is that Einstein was only one of many brilliant achievers and inventors whose academic performance was less than perfect. Did you know that Isaac Newton did very poorly in grade school or that Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade? Opera singer Enrico Caruso’s teacher once told him he had neither the talent nor the voice to sing, and Beethoven’s teacher chastised him for the clumsy way in which he handled the violin and composed music. Would these geniuses have been candidates for Ritalin today?
Recently, I overheard a conversation between a woman and a middle school teacher, who was being questioned about what percentage of her students were taking Ritalin. The teacher’s retort was that “Yes, many of them were, but not enough!”
Isn’t it sad that just because a parent or a school identifies that a child may be learning or behaving in a different way than other children, they see a need to medicate them-especially when there have been no studies done on the long-term effects of these drugs? Whatever happened to respecting the unique differences that make the human race interesting, and have we forgotten that “situational” depression is a common occurrence amongst teens and adults?
Read entire article: http://www.wickedlocal.com/billerica/news/lifestyle/columnists/x1664785609/Just-For-The-Health-Of-It-What-If-Albert-Einstein-Was-On-Ritalin
« Return to news items
Tags: ADD, ADHD, Albert Einstein, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, behavior problems, depression, labeled, learning disabled, perform poorly at school, Ritalin
Posted in News | 5 Comments »
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
NewsReview.com
March 25, 2010
Young people are being overmedicated and undermined. It is time that we recognize that the deluge of amphetamines and psychotropic drugs being consumed by teenagers may be more of a problem than a solution.
Drug companies are capitalizing off our kids, and why not? They’re the perfect targets. According to a study published in the May/June 2009 issue of Health Affairs, prescriptions for psychiatric drugs increased 50 percent with children in the United States from 1996 to 2006. This is a scary statistic, and one that may be fueled by economic and political forces rather than genuine psychiatric problems among our youth. “Start first with a pharmaceutical industry, that the critics charge, shovels money at the state and federal officials and psychiatric profession in pushing high priced drugs for minors,” wrote Alan Reder in his article “The Other Youth Drug Problem.”
In 2008, psychiatric drug makers raked in a grand total of $29 billion from sales of drugs to treat antidepressant, antipsychotic and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). While CEOs of these corporations are assembling a hefty retirement fund for themselves, they are not the only ones reaping the benefits of this perverse industry. Parents are now able to declare their kids disabled due to mental illness and receive Social Security disability payments and free medical care. In 2006 alone, more money—$8.9 billion—was spent treating mental disorders in the United States in children ages 0-17 than any other ailment. Some critics even claim these drugs are causing the abnormal behaviors that doctors claim show “disability.”
The seriousness of these drugs that we relentlessly feed children seems overlooked. Beginning in May 2007, the FDA required that all anti-depressants have Black Box Warnings. A drug receives a Black Box Warning when studies have shown that it can have extremely dangerous or even deadly side effects. Anti-depressants often have adverse effects such as increasing the thoughts of suicide in people under 25. A Black Box Warning is the FDA’s strongest safety warning, and yet we supply children as young as 10 with antidepressants that carry these labels.
Read entire article: http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=1391594
« Return to news items
Tags: abnormal behaviors, ADHD, adverse effects, anti-depressants, antidepressants, antipsychotic, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Black Box Warnings, deadly side effects, FDA, mental disorders, mental illness, overmedicated, psychotropic drugs, side effects, Suicide
Posted in News | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Total Health Breakthroughs
By Jon Herring
March 10, 2010
“Hey, Phillip… do you mind if I sit here and eat with you?” I asked.
“Sure, whatever…”
“How’s school going? Are you doing well?”
“Not really. I just want it to be summer.”
“Yeah, I remember how that used to feel,” I told him.
Phillip is eleven years old. He’s the son of some family friends and I was at a small party when I saw him sitting by himself. I hadn’t seen him for a few years, so I wanted to remind him who I was and get to know him a little better.
As he became comfortable, he opened up a bit more. He told me his plans for the summer. He told me about his friends and the girl he likes at school. And he also told me that he didn’t care for school all that much.
“It’s hard,” he said. “Plus, I have ADHD, so I don’t pay attention very well.”
“Really? How do you know you have ADHD?” I asked.
“That’s what my doctor said. He said I’ve had it since I was born. That’s why I have to take medicine.”
“Well, I think you’re just fine. How does that medicine make you feel?”
“It used to make me kinda nervous,” he said. “And I couldn’t go to sleep when I took it. Now, it just makes me not want to eat.”
After complimenting Phillip on his manners and intelligence, I changed the subject back to his plans for the summer. But what he said bothered me. Here was a bright young boy who was bored and frustrated in school… who probably had a few behavioral problems… and who had now been labeled as having a “disease” and put on medication.
And, unfortunately, Phillip is just one of millions…
Read entire article: http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/2010/03/adhd-is-not-a-disease/
« Return to news items
Tags: ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, behavioral problems, Ritalin
Posted in News | No Comments »
News Feed
Donate
