- A recent study reveals that the drug being prescribed
to tens of millions of school-age children for a scientifically unproved
mental disorder is more potent than cocaine.
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- Thirty years ago the World Health Organization (WHO)
concluded that Ritalin was pharmacologically similar to cocaine in the
pattern of abuse it fostered and cited it as a Schedule II drug - the most
addictive in medical use. The Department of Justice also cited Ritalin
as a Schedule II drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and the Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) warned that "Ritalin substitutes for cocaine
and d-amphetamine in a number of behavioral paradigms."
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- Despite decades of official warnings and supporting research
confirming the similarities of methylphenidate (Ritalin) and cocaine, tens
of millions of children in the United States have been prescribed this
psychotropic drug for a widely accepted yet scientifically unproved mental
condition: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Now a recently
concluded study at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) not only confirms
the similarities of cocaine and Ritalin, but finds that Ritalin is more
potent than cocaine in its effect on the dopamine system, which many doctors
believe is one of the areas of the brain most affected by drugs such as
Ritalin and cocaine.
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- The outcome of this research was so surprising that team
leader Nora Volkow, a psychiatrist who is associate laboratory director
for life sciences at BNL, told the media that she and the team were "shocked
as hell" at the results. "The data," explains Volkow, "clearly
show that the notion that Ritalin is a weak stimulant is completely incorrect."
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- This revelation should be of no surprise to the medical
and psychiatric communities, given the already documented warnings about
methylphenidate by federal law-enforcement agencies and international organizations,
but it is noteworthy on one level. Volkow's newly released research reinforces
what critics long have known - that the "medication" being prescribed
for ADHD is not merely similar to cocaine but is in fact more potent. And
the results raise further questions about the validity and repercussions
of having an entire generation of children diagnosed with a "mental
disorder" or "brain disease" which to date has no basis
in physical science.
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- Volkow's findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience
and reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, may act
as a wake-up call to parents, educators and lawmakers who have yet to address
the question of whether ADHD is a real physical, medical or neurological
disease that can be scientifically confirmed or is even confirmable. Because
the ADHD diagnosis is the No. 1 reason for drugging school-age children,
and Volkow's research reconfirms that Ritalin isn't just kid stuff, parents
may want to re-evaluate their child's treatment. The numbers alone are
a telling sign of where the push to medicate is going.
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- According to the DEA, the number of prescriptions written
for Ritalin since 1991 has increased by a factor of five (2.2 million)
and about 80 percent of the 11 million prescriptions written for Ritalin
are to "treat" ADHD. This means that nearly 9 million children
have been prescribed the cocainelike "medication."
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- Furthermore, according to a study published last February
in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "Trends in the
Prescribing of Psychotropic Medications to Preschoolers," psychotropic
medications have tripled in preschoolers ages 2 to 4 during a five-year
period. More disturbing, say critics, given Volkow's recent revelations,
is that during the last 15 years the use of Ritalin increased by 311 percent
for those ages 15 to 19 and 170 percent for those ages 5 to 14.
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- The most recent figures available reveal that in 1998
there were approximately 46 million children in kindergarten through grade
12. Twenty percent - one of every five children in school - have been doped
with the mind-altering drug.
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- This can be good news only for investors in the Swiss-based
pharmaceutical company Novartis, which makes Ritalin. For instance, if
the number of children taking the drug increased fivefold, so did the drug
company's resultant profits and (presumably) stock value. In a June 28,
1999, article, "Doping Kids," Insight estimated that Novartis
generated an increase in its stock-market value of $1,236 per child prescribed
Ritalin. Based on these evaluations, the drug company would have enjoyed
an increased stock-market value of approximately $10 billion or more since
1991.
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- In fact, the number of children being prescribed the
cocainelike drug is rising at such a rate that, while good for investors,
if ADHD were based on science and were a communicable disease, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention would consider it a major medical epidemic
among America's youth. In the meantime, prescriptions continue to increase
even as researchers continue to focus on the effect of psychotropic drugs
such as Ritalin rather than on how scientifically to verify or validate
the diagnosis. And critics of this mass drugging have become convinced
that is no accident.
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- Take neurologist Fred Baughman for example, who tells
Insight, "Yes, they have proved and we've known for decades that Ritalin
alters/damages/changes the brain. But with no evidence that ADHD is a disease
we also know that these children are normal. All this research [from Volkow
at BNL] says to me is that 9 million children diagnosed as having ADHD
are being damaged by Ritalin just as with cocaine and every other psychotropic
drug."
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- "The point," explains Baughman, "is that
normal children are being drugged exactly like the Cali and Medellín
cartels, but under the guise of medication to help and with all in the
medical community being knowing participants. She [Volkow] found something
very alarming about Ritalin and at the same time is writing like ADHD is
a proven thing - that ADHD is a real disease. It just isn't so. It's pure
propaganda and there never has been proof of a specific chemical [or] physical
abnormality in children diagnosed with the alleged ADHD. None."
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- Renay Tanner, an expert in human rights and psychiatry
and a doctoral candidate in sociomedical sciences at Columbia University,
tells Insight, "Volkow isn't saying anything new. She's just looked
at the issue with a different technique. The important thing to remember
is that no child ever has died from ADHD, yet a number of children have
died from the 'treatment,' not to mention the brain damage, stunted growth
and suicidal feelings they experience. One has to ask why children are
being targeted for the myth of the chemical imbalance when no one can show
that an alleged sufferer has a chemical imbalance and no one - certainly
not the medical community - even knows what such a chemical imbalance might
be."
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- Tanner continues: "The brain is too complex and
our understanding of it is too minimal to be giving children these drugs.
We know the drugs cause harm to the brain but have yet to find any real
evidence that they are helpful. Sure, the drugs may shut them up, and I
suppose that's good for the parents and teachers, but is it good for the
children? I strongly believe that the federal government should remove
the financial incentives from school districts as a kind of reward for
the number of children put on these drugs. After all, why does the government
do this? Is it good intentions gone bad or social policy with unintended
consequences? At the most, Volkow' s research is excellent evidence that
children should not be given Ritalin. One has to ask why this research
wasn't done before millions of children were put on a mind-altering drug."
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- Despite Volkow's revelations about Ritalin's potency,
critics don't see changes in the status quo anytime soon. Beverly Eakman,
founder of the National Education Consortium, a nonprofit corporation specializing
in education law, and the author of Cloning of the American Mind, tells
Insight, "The agenda is to dope as many kids as possible because it
makes them more suggestible - more open to doing what normally they wouldn't
do."
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- According to Eakman, "These drugs make children
more manageable, not necessarily better. ADHD is a phenomenon, not a 'brain
disease.' It is culture-caused, and what we need to focus on is that we
are manufacturing drugs for diseases that don't exist. Because the diagnosis
of ADHD is fraudulent, it doesn't matter whether a drug 'works.' You've
got doctors being encouraged to prescribe these drugs whenever a complaint
from a patient is too difficult or costly to diagnose. Why aren't people
up in arms about the fact that children are being forced to take a drug
that is stronger than cocaine for a disease that is yet to be proven?"
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- Critics of the ADHD diagnosis have been asking this question
for years, but the psychiatric community appears to have turned more and
more to medicating. A closer look at what leaders in psychiatry are saying
may prove helpful. In January, for example, National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) Director Steve Hyman reported at the NIMH Advisory Council
meeting that "we can make correct clinical diagnoses if the right
kind of evaluation is available to children. When proper diagnosis is made,
methylphenidate/Ritalin can be safe and effective." Hyman warned:
"We ignore mood disorders in children at our peril. Just because a
child is in their seat doesn't mean they are okay."
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- Critics suggest that it also doesn't mean that they aren't
okay, and that Hyman's remarks only confirm that psychiatric diagnosis
is subjective - that diagnosis of mental health depends upon who is looking.
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- http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200110015.shtml
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