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The Great Ritalin Debate
Treating ADHD With Medication By Kelly Burgess
It's a common scenario for children all over the country: starting the day with a dose of Ritalin or a similar drug. In the year 2000, about 20 million prescriptions were written for drugs like Ritalin, even though it's estimated that only about four million children suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. This discrepancy has resulted in a closer look at the diagnoses of ADHD, Ritalin as a solution to the problem and the process used in prescribing psychiatric drugs to children.
In 1996 and 1997, the United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board issued warnings about the dramatically increasing use of methylphenidate (primarily Ritalin), in the Unites States. The board cited concerns about the possibility of over-diagnosis of ADHD, consequent overuse of the drug and the potential for abuse. This report resulted in a serious backlash against the use of psychotropic drugs to treat children.
When Michael Weathers was in third grade, his mother, Patricia, was charged with neglect, and a caseworker from the local child welfare office showed up at her door with authorization to take Michael from her. Weathers' "crime" was her refusal to continue medicating her son. Michael had been on Ritalin and other psychiatric drugs since he was 6 years old. Increasingly alarmed by the disturbing side effects, she had informed Michael's school that she was going to explore alternative treatments. The school's response was to terminate Michael's enrollment and report Weathers to child welfare.
It is this type of action that has sparked the parental activist movement against Ritalin and other psychotropic drugs. In addition, a number of children whose parents were coerced into giving their children psychotropic drugs have died as a result.
In 1999, an article published in the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine by Dr. Peter Breggin, author of Reclaiming Our Children: A Healing Solution for a Nation in Crisis