Dangerous Drug Effects

There are numerous health risks and other inconsistencies associated with the prescription of mind-altering drugs for socalled ADHD or other learning disorders.

The Physician�s Desk Reference Guide says increased heart rate and blood pressure can result from using Ritalin to �treat� ADHD. In August 2001, the Journal of the American Medical Association reiterated that Ritalin acts much like cocaine.

Longterm detrimental side effects may appear after years of remaining on or stopping the drugs. �The adverse effect on growth hormone is so regular and predictable that it can be used as a measure of whether or not [the stimulant] is active in the child�s body.� �Even a child�s sexual maturation is impaired.� Suicide is the major complication of withdrawal from this stimulant and similar amphetaminelike drugs.

According to neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Sydney Walker III, author of The Hyperactivity Hoax, �While studies indicate that the drug (methylphenidate) is probably only a weak carcinogen [cancer causing agent], increasing the future cancer risk of millions of children�even a little bit�is not something to be done lightly. Another recent report warns that [Ritalin] �may have persistent, cumulative effects on the myocardium (thick muscle layer that forms most of the heart wall).��

The United States consumes 85% of the international production of methylphenidate (Ritalin). In 2002, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly found high rates of methylphenidate consumption in Belgium, Germany, Iceland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In Britain, the stimulant prescription rate for children soared 9,200% between 1992 and 2000, while in Australia, there was a 34 fold increase over the past two decades. Between 1989 and 1996, France reported a 600% increase in the number of children labeled �hyperactive.� Sales of methylphenidate in Mexico increased 800% between 1993 and 2001.

�How can millions of children be taking a drug that is pharmacologically very similar to another drug, cocaine, that is not only considered dangerous and addictive, but whose buying, selling, and using are also considered a criminal act?� asks Richard DeGrandpre, professor of psychology and author of Ritalin Nation.

In addition to these stimulants, another 1.5 million children and adolescents in the United States are taking Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants. Between 1995 and 1999 in the United States, antidepressant use increased 151% for seven to 12 year olds and 580% for children under six. Children as young as five years old committed suicide while taking prescription SSRI antidepressants. In Britain, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants has also more than doubled in 10 years.

In 2003, the British medicines regulatory body warned doctors not to prescribe SSRI antidepressants to under18 year olds, citing suicide risks. On March 22, 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an advisory to doctors, stating: �Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), hypomania and mania, have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with [SSRI] antidepressants � both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric.�

After hearings held in September 2004, the FDA ordered in October that a prominent �black box� warning about potential suicide risk be placed on SSRI bottles. However, these and, indeed, all psychotropic drugs, should really be prohibited because of their general danger and high potential for fatal consequences.

Robert Whitaker, science writer and author of Mad in America , says, �What we have after years of soaring use of psychotropic drugs is a crisis in mental health, an epidemic of mental illness among children. Instead of seeing better mental health with ever more medicating, we see a worsening of mental health.�

�One of the very hard things for me to deal with,� Lawrence Smith says, �is the fact that Matthew never wanted his medication. How many more 14 year old Matthew Smiths will have to die before someone puts a stop to this biggest healthcare fraud ever?�

It was a psychiatrist who prescribed Matthew�s lethal drugs, not �health care.� However, by accepting psychiatry�s system of diagnosis and treatment, general medicine itself may face risk and controversy as the failures of that system become more obvious.

There is yet another significant professional risk. By acceding to, or even merging with, psychiatric thinking, general medical practice and other medical specialties could be associated in the public�s mind with not only the mental health industry�s poor reputation, but also much of psychiatry�s unsavory history. It is a history worth examining.

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