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Focus on Ritalin

Understanding the Method Behind the Medicine

By Donna Smith

(McGraw-Hill Companies, 1999)."It does not present the dangers of cocaine in its potential for addiction and most studies do not indicate that kids who take it are more likely to be drug users later."

While some argue that Ritalin should not be compared with hard drugs like cocaine, the DEA does classify it as a "Schedule II" substance. Schedule II drugs are defined as "having a high abuse potential with severe psychic or physical dependence liability." Amphetamines and cocaine also are included in this group.

Ritalin is highly controversial not only in how it actually works, but if it works at all. Many parents feel Ritalin is their children's savior, and many feel it is abused, over-prescribed and does not work.

For Helen, a daycare director and mother of two boys, Ritalin was a lifesaver. Her oldest son, Max, had been diagnosed with ADHD, but her husband was against putting him on any medication.

"We went through three yers of hell before he took Ritalin," says Helen. "He was labeled a bad boy in daycare, got kicked out of camp, had detentions in kindergarten life was hell. Our family was falling apart."

After consulting a child psychologist for a year, Helen told her husband if they didn't put their son on Ritalin, she was leaving. "We tried it, and within the first day we saw Max in a different light. That day I found my husband sitting on our bed crying like a baby, apologizing, saying if he only knew we wouldn't have gone through the three years of hell."

Two years later, Max is still on Ritalin. Helen says his self-esteem is high and at school he is in a regular class with no special help. "He's come a long way. And our family is in better shape, too."

But not all have such good results. Joyce's son, Stephen, always had difficulty in school, despite the fact that he was very bright. "He simply could not follow through on any homework assignments," says Joyce. "We'd sit down in the evenings and I'd make sure he did the work, but then the next day he wouldn't turn it in because he'd left it in his locker."

Stephen's teachers thought he was a troublemaker he would get into fights with other kids, and he could not pay attention in class. "To say we, as parents, were exasperated is a gross understatement," says Joyce. "We read books, we took him to counseling, until finally after many years of frustration and a long record of failure a doctor diagnosed him with ADD and prescribed Ritalin."

Joyce did not get the results she had hoped for. "He was on the drug for one month and if you saw him under its influence it would break your heart. He was dull, lethargic, depressed. We felt terrible because we felt we were turning him into a zombie."