Surge in ADHD diagnoses gets a red flag
06 November 2013
Doctors sounded a warning Tuesday
over a rise in ADHD diagnoses, saying some children may be needlessly taking
powerful drugs intended to correct a poorly understood disorder.
Writing in the British Medical
Journal (BMJ), the researchers noted treatment for
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had risen massively in recent
years, even though its causes are unclear and drugs can have adverse effects.
ADHD is a disorder blamed for
severe and frequent bouts of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity.
Children and young adolescents are those who are most diagnosed with it.
But some experts fear the term
ADHD may "medicalise" problems related to a child's personality or
maturity level, the effects of poor parenting or other home problems.
In Australia,
prescriptions for the stimulant Ritalin and other ADHD drugs rose by 72 percent
between 2000 and 2011, while in Britain
and the Netherlands
prescriptions roughly doubled between 2003 and 2008, said the paper.
According to the US National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), nearly one in 11 American children aged
13-18 and one in 25 adults are affected by ADHD.
The analysis noted that Ritalin and other drugs were meant to
be used only for "severe" ADHD symptoms, which according to research
data only occur among about 14 percent of children with the condition.
Yet "about 87 percent of
children diagnosed with ADHD in the US in 2010 subsequently received
medication," it said, warning of "unnecessary and possibly harmful
medication treatment".
The study said the main ADHD drugs
could have side effects like weight change, liver damage and dwelling on
suicide. And the drugs' long-term impact, as a child moves into adulthood,
remained unknown.
The study, led by Rae Thomas at
the Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice at Australia's Bond University,
did not dispute the existence of ADHD as a medical condition.
It noted that children who
genuinely had a severe form of it ran the risk of failure at school and of
social rejection.
But it called on doctors to follow
a six-step programme of "watchful waiting" over 10 weeks to confirm
that a child really did need help.
A separate study using lab rats
suggested high, abusive doses of the chief ingredient in Ritalin stimulates a
brain chemical mechanism implicated in drug addiction.
Rats were given the possibility of
self-administering a dose of methylphenidate (MPH) in experiments led by Sara
Jones at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Caroline.
Repeated high doses of the
substance released a neurochemical brake in the brain, boosting levels of the
"pleasure" chemical called dopamine.
The results are important in the
context of reports of widening use of MPH for a non-medical high, especially
among US college students, said the paper in the journal Nature Communications
on Tuesday.
"We think it (the reported
abuse) is more dangerous than generally believed," Jones told AFP in a
phone interview.
In rats, Ritalin caused the brain
to become more sensitised to dopamine signals, which meant they did not need
ever higher doses -- the opposite observed in cocaine trials.
This characteristic could make Ritalin
a "gateway" drug, added to the fact that traces of it stayed in the
body for a long time -- giving an added boost to a user simultaneously taking
cocaine, amphetamines or other narcotics.
Jones said the rats gave
themselves doses "probably between five and 10 times" the amount
prescribed for children with ADHD.
"There were no effects (on
the rats) from oral doses that you would typically prescribe to a child,"
she added. "That was comforting."
Methylphenidate (Ritalin)
Methylphenidate (trade names
Concerta, Methylin, Ritalin, Equasym XL)
is a psychostimulant drug and substituted phenethylamine approved for treatment
of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), postural orthostatic
tachycardia syndrome and narcolepsy. The original patent was owned by CIBA, now
Novartis
Corporation. It was first licensed by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) in 1955 for
treating what was then known as hyperactivity. Prescribed to patients beginning
in 1960, the drug became heavily prescribed in the 1990s, when the diagnosis of
ADHD itself became more widely accepted.
Note: Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Novartis
Corporation, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Novartis
Corporation is a U.S.
subsidiary of Novartis AG.
James F. Collins
was a senior advisor at Akin, Gump,
Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank).
Daniel
Vasella is a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and was the chairman for Novartis AG.
William W. George
was a director at Novartis AG, and
is a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Ted
Turner is the co-chairman for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and the founder of CNN.
Margaret A.
Hamburg is the VP for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director
at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think
tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United
States in war)
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
George Soros
is the chairman for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), and the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Donald
Kennedy was a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Mark B. McClellan
was the commissioner for the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Ann M.
Fudge is the U.S.
program advisory panel chair for the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, a director at Novartis AG, a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and was a director at the United Negro College Fund.
Linda Johnson
Rice is a director at the United
Negro College Fund, a friend of Valerie
B. Jarrett, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago,
Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Valerie B. Jarrett
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, a friend of Linda
Johnson Rice, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the
American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP,
and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Novartis
Corporation, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
James F. Collins
was a senior advisor at Akin, Gump,
Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank).
Daniel
Vasella is a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and was the chairman for Novartis AG.
William W. George
was a director at Novartis AG, and
is a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank).
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