- On March 21, 2000, 14-year-old Matthew Smith dropped
dead of a heart attack while skateboarding. The ninth-grader had been on
Ritalin since the first grade. Lawrence Smith, father of the youngster,
has testified that he and his wife were forced by Michigan Social Services
to put their child on Ritalin or else be charged for neglecting their son's
educational and emotional needs.
-
- "His last report card was his best," says Lawrence
Smith. "But it wasn't worth it for us. Putting him on Ritalin was
the worst decision I've ever made." And that's because no long-range
study had been made of the effects of Ritalin on children who take it over
a number of years.
-
- It has also been known since 1986 that methylphenidate,
the generic term for Ritalin, causes shrinkage of the brain. A study that
appeared in Psychiatry Research (Vol. 17, 1986) states: "The data
in this study are suggestive of mild cerebral atrophy in young male adults
who had a diagnosis of HK/MBD during childhood and had received stimulant
drug treatment for a period of time."
-
- Another study published in Archives of General Psychiatry
(July 1996) found that "Subjects with ADHD had a 4.7 percent smaller
total cerebral volume." Fifty-three of the 57 subjects with ADHD had
been previously treated with psycho-stimulants. Apparently, these drugs
constrict the flow of blood.
-
- Despite these alarming findings, nearly 6 million children
take Ritalin or one of a number of other stimulants in order to attend
school. According to the Boston Globe (May 14, 2002): "New Englanders
buy more of the stimulant Ritalin and its generic equivalents per capita
than residents of any other part of the country." Believe it or not,
New Hampshire is the nation's leading consumer of methylphenidate, the
generic name for Ritalin. Next in consumption is Vermont, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island and Maine.
-
- Why such high consumption in New England? The region
has more doctors per capita, and therefore more children are likely to
be prescribed medication for so-called attention disorders. Also, New England
has a high concentration of liberals who love the public schools and are
more inclined to be cooperative when educators recommend drugging their
children. In addition, more and more adults are taking Ritalin and its
competitor, Adderall.
-
- Parents Magazine and Good Housekeeping of September 2002
had two-page ads for Adderall XR, suggesting that life for a child could
be so much better if he were on the drug. The ad reads:
-
- Finding the right medication may help you see a big difference
in how your child feels about himself or herself and what he or she is
able to accomplish all day, every day! Ö Ask your doctor if a change
to patient-friendly Adderall XR could be right for your child.
-
- In other words, "Parents, please switch from Ritalin
to Adderall." The ad then has these cautionary words about side effects:
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- Adderall XR is for patients with a confirmed diagnosis
of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Ö The most common
side effects are decreased appetite, loss of sleep (insomnia), abdominal
pain, and emotional lability [instability] Ö Amphetamines have a high
potential for abuse. Caution is advised in patients with a history of high
blood pressure or mental illness ÖThere is a potential for worsening
of motor and phonic tics and Tourette's syndrome.
-
- When parents are advised to put their child on Ritalin,
no examination is made to see if that child might be allergic to its side
effects. Of course, some children seem to benefit from the drug. Otherwise,
there wouldn't be 6 million children on it and other similar drugs. But
the power of methylphenadate is closer to cocaine than aspirin.
-
- Recently, I received a call from a father being pressured
by a school to put his son on Ritalin. What did I think of the idea, he
asked. I told him of the sudden death of some children, the violent and
murderous behavior of others, and the fact that Ritalin shrinks the brain.
He wanted me to tell all of this to his wife who was inclined to go along
with the school. So he put her on the phone. She listened politely. But
when I told her of the shrinkage of the brain, she wanted to know if it
produced any behavioral change. I said I didn't know, but I thought that
more brain was better than less brain.
-
- As far as I knew, no investigations had been made by
medical researchers on what happens to intelligence when the brain atrophies.
But I got the distinct impression that this boy's mother was not alarmed
by brain shrinkage per se. If I could not demonstrate a definite loss of
intelligence or nervous-system capability, then brain shrinkage was really
nothing to worry about.
-
- In fact, the Detroit News of Dec. 12, 2002, reported
that there was indeed nothing to worry about. The article's headline said
it all: "Ritalin is safe ñ and it works." An excited reporter
wrote:
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- For more than a generation, we've been "drugging"
our unruly children to calm them down. And in doing so, we have risked
damaging their young brains and setting them up for long-term drug addiction
ñ or so we have been warned.
-
- But now, that mantra is being turned inside-out. The
first long-term results of what some have called a huge drug experiment
on our children shows what almost no one expected.
-
- Not only do the stimulant drugs used to treat "Attention-Deficit
Hyperactive Disorder" ñ or ADHD as it is known ñ not
damage the brain, they appear to enhance brain growth, helping afflicted
children catch up in brain size to their more "normal" peers.
-
- That blockbuster finding, printed recently in the Journal
of the American Medical Association, is finally easing the fears of parents
afraid of these drugs and is sending experts on a mission to get the word
out.
-
- Apparently the article in the Journal of the AMA is based
on a 10-year study by the National Institute of Mental Health. The study
revealed that children with ADHD indeed have smaller brains to begin with,
but those treated with psycho-stimulants such as Ritalin experience brain
growth.
-
- What is one to believe? The National Institute of Mental
Health is a federal bureaucracy used by Congress to justify expenditures
of billions of dollars to solve such problems as the genetic causes of
dyslexia.
-
- What about those studies cited earlier in this article
showing that these drugs reduce brain size? Apparently they were performed
by experts not on the payrolls of the drug companies and not geared to
gaining federal funding. Which means that parents must still be wary of
drugs that can kill young children.
-
- _____
-
- Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of eight books
on education, including: "Is Public Education Necessary?" "NEA:
Trojan Horse in American Education," "The Whole Language/OBE
Fraud" and "Homeschooling: A Parents Guide to Teaching Children."
His books are available on Amazon.com. Back issues of his incisive newsletter,
The Blumenfeld Education Letter, are available online.
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