Opening Insights
Pocket Wisdom Insights (PWI) invites you to explore the following Co-Lab Blog.
This blog features parts of an influential and insightful article written outside of the PWI Co-Lab
by John Naish on 8 May 2012, published by Dailymail.com.
We have republished this content in respect of the author’s vision, message and research.
Informational Insights
Ritalin calms hyperactive children and prescriptions are soaring – but experts warn of serious side-effects and it’s even being linked to suicide.
When the school holidays arrive, Andrea Antunes makes sure her son Ruben, ten, has a break — not just from classwork, but from the Ritalin pills he takes each day.
Four years ago, Ruben was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a syndrome which causes hyperactivity, restlessness and inattention. His school told Andrea Ruben faced exclusion unless he took drugs to control his behavior.
The drugs dull his hyperactive tendencies, but Andrea, 37, a mother of two from Norwich, dislikes them — in fact, she avoids them whenever possible.
‘When he is off Ritalin, he will run around, ride his bike, not sit still,’ she says. ‘But he sleeps and eats better. The drugs keep him wakeful and reduce his appetite.’
Andrea’s reluctance to medicate her son’s behavior unnecessarily seems very wise.
Figures released last week showed prescriptions of Ritalin have quadrupled in the last decade — from 158,000 in 1999 to 661,463 in 2010 — with children as young as three taking the powerful medication.
This massive growth comes despite warnings from experts that the more children take ADHD drugs, the more ‘rare’ but lethal side-effects, such as suicidal thoughts and psychosis, become common.
This human toll was starkly revealed at the inquest last year of ten-year-old Harry Hucknall, who killed himself while on a high dose of Ritalin.
The youngster, a cousin twice-removed of the singer Mick Hucknall, had ADHD. The level of Ritalin found in his system was above the normal therapeutic level and he was also on drugs for depression when he was found at his home in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, in September 2010.
The West Cumbria coroner, Ian Smith, said doctors must be ‘extremely careful’ in prescribing drugs to ten-year-olds.
‘We as a society try to stop children dabbling in street drugs and yet a child with this label of ADHD is prescribed mind-altering drugs of a very powerful nature — the full consequences of which I do not believe are fully understood,’ he said.
The case echoes an earlier tragedy, in 2008, when 15-year-old Anthony Cole hanged himself in his bedroom after his Ritalin prescription was increased. The Milton Keynes schoolboy had been on the drug for six years, having been diagnosed with ADHD at the age of nine.
This week, the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP) said that in a worrying new trend its members are seeing Ritalin dosages being increased over time.
[..]
‘Children who are anxious may misbehave and be fidgety, but those symptoms must not be mistaken for ADHD,’ he says. ‘The last thing you want if you are feeling anxious is to take a stimulant drug.’
[..]
Source: ADHD: Ritalin prescriptions are soaring but experts warn of serious side-effects | Daily Mail Online
Possibilities for Consideration
Take a moment and examine…
- As you reviewed the material above, what stood out to you?
- What is the potential impact, economically and/or socially?
- What action is needed to stop or support this idea?
- You may want to consider whether you:
- want to be aware of,
- should become supportive of,
- would want to be active in this topic?
Add Your Insight
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; we must do.
LEONARDO DA VINCI