The Dark Side Of A Wonder Drug-A

Selected Collection Of Testimony On The Safety Of Ritalin Essay, Research Paper

The Dark side of a Wonder Drug-A Selected Collection of Testimony on the Safety

of Ritalin

“We give our children every day, yet we punish adults for taking speed,”

stated a concerned parent(Ritalin Zone). A trip to the principal’s office used

to mean big trouble. These days, more kids are showing up in the school office

just to get their midday dose of Ritalin. Ritalin, the drug used to treat

hyperactivity in children, is being seized on by a generation worried about

controlling inappropriate behavior. But some doctors think Ritalin is being

prescribed to children who are simply having trouble in school. The numbers

suggest they have good reason to worry. The number of prescriptions for Ritalin

increased four-fold from 1990 to 1995, making the stimulant one of the most

prescribed drugs in the country. No one knows exactly what’s behind the surge in

Ritalin use, but experts speculate it’s due to everything from increased

awareness of attention disorders in schools to teachers and parents becoming

less tolerant of unruly behavior.

Some local school offices have become virtual noon-time pharmacies. At one

Ottawa-area board of education, the number of medications dispensed to students

by office administrators has increased 20 per cent over the past 18 months. A

good chunk of those pills are Ritalin. “We always worry that we’re a half-step

away from giving someone the wrong dosage,” says John Beatty, the board’s

superintendent of school operations(Ritalin Boy). “In certain school systems

there’s been a teacher who has seen it work and they’ll start suggesting it as

an option for all children who are acting out,” said Linda Budd, a St. Paul,

Minn., psychologist who has written the book Living With the Active/Alert Child.

“We’ve got some teachers we call “Ritalin bullies’ – he’s not paying attention

to me so he needs Ritalin”(Ritalin Zone). Marcia Ruberg, a school psychologist

in Cherry Hill (N.J.) School District, said the number of children taking

Ritalin varies greatly from class to class, depending on “the teacher’s belief

system”(Ritalin). At some schools, children as young as seven are asked to take

their Ritalin themselves. The little blue pills have become so common in school

yards that some kids are reportedly selling their spare Ritalin to friends, who

take it in the hope of getting a buzz. “Every parent wants their child to be at

the top of the class,” says Dr. Andre Cote, clinical director of the Children’s

Mental Health Treatment Center at the Royal Ottawa Hospital. “What we might be

seeing is that people are trying to improve their kids’ performance by giving

them medication”(Health: Ritalin).

Others worry that Ritalin has become an easy answer for busy families

trying to cope with a hyperactive or aggressive child on their own. Dr. Thomas

Millar, a retired Vancouver child psychiatrist, believes ADHD is not a disorder,

but behavior that discipline and better parenting can fix. “Ritalin may calm

the child,” says Millar, “but it does nothing to increase his or her tolerance

for life’s demands, and when the Ritalin runs out, the symptoms return”(ADHD:

Ritalin). Even proponents of Ritalin fear that normal, rambunctious children

may be being labeled with a disease for which there is still no clear test.

“Basically, you are taking children who are in conflict with adults and drugging

them,” said Dr. Peter R. Breggin, a Bethesda, Md., psychiatrist and leading

opponent of the drug. “You have a child who is depressed, who can’t concentrate,

who is having trouble in school and you’re drugging him instead of saying what

can we do to attend to the child’s needs”(Discover Ritalin). Lawrence H Diller

MD, agrees with Dr. Breggin by saying, “It is easier to medicate a child than

work with a dysfunctional family, decrease the size of a large classroom or

increase funding for special education”(Wonder Drug). Part of the problem is

that while the experts stress that any child who may have an attention disorder

should be thoroughly assessed to rule out other problems, it can take months,

even a year or more, to get a referral to a specialist. “When the mother goes

and sees the family physician and says, “The teacher told me little George can’t

sit still, he wanders all over the class, he has difficulty concentrating,’ the

general practitioner may be tempted to say, “Well I know what your problem is,

take that pill and come and see me in two weeks,’ “says Dr. Peter Byonsen, a

child psychologist(Team Ritalin).

As many as two million children have been diagnosed as having Attention

Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The preferred form

of treatment for these alleged disorders is a powerful drug called Ritalin — a

Schedule II controlled substance, as are cocaine and methadone. Attention

deficit-hyperactivity disorder is a baffling brain disorder. Children who have

it are hyperactive, have a short attention span and are easily distracted. Most

experts believe that ADHD stems from biochemical malfunctions in the brain.

Children with ADHD are usually in constant motion, tapping fingers or toes,