Ritalin is prescribed to 6 million children with ADHD every year and like all drugs comes with a long list of side effects including nervousness, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, insomnia, joint pains, headaches, increased blood pressure, fever, rapid heartbeat, abdominal pain, and psychosis.

Tom Sawyer may have been a layabout, a truant and self-indulgence. He may have picked fights with strangers for no apparent reason; but he was also resourceful, spirited and refreshingly clever. Huckleberry Finn was an illiterate outcast, but as a long term rafting companion he had no peer.

Today children who have difficulty playing quietly or following instructions find themselves under the scrutiny of parents, teachers, guidance counsellors and child therapists, all of them looking for the slightest sign of a medical syndrome. (Fully referenced articles regarding ADHD and Magnesium, ADHD and Fish oil and ADHD and Tonsillectomy can be found on my website which is linked to at the bottom of this article).

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) only mandates a warning be printed on the package insert for Ritalin which is now associated with 19 confirmed childhood deaths due to cardiovascular problems. Stimulants might be far more dangerous to the heart than Vioxx or Bextra, drugs that were withdrawn over the past two years because of their ill effects on the heart.

On March 21, 2000, a 14-year-old boy dropped dead of a heart attack while skateboarding. The ninth-grader had been on Ritalin since the first grade. The father of the youngster has testified that he and his wife were forced by Michigan Social Services to put their child on Ritalin or else be charged for neglecting their son's educational and emotional needs. (WorldNetDaily.com January 3, 2003).

These agents substantially increase the heart rate and blood pressure. In a placebo-controlled trial, mixed amphetamine salts (Adderall) administered to adults increased systolic blood pressure by about 5 mm Hg; similar effects were found with methylphenidate formulations. Blood-pressure changes of this magnitude, particularly during long-term therapy, are known to increase morbidity and mortality. (Steven E. Nissen. ADHD Drugs and Cardiovascular Risk. New England Journal of Medicine 2006; 354: 1445-1448).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising health care professionals about a new warning for Strattera, a drug approved for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults and children. The labelling warns that severe liver injury may progress to liver failure resulting in death or the need for a liver transplant in a small percentage of patients. The labelling also notes that the number of actual cases of severe liver injury is unknown because of under-reporting of post-marketing adverse events. (Medical News Today 18/12/2004).

Hallucinations

Stimulants like Ritalin lead a small number of children treated for ADHD to suffer hallucinations that usually feature insects, snakes or worms, according to federal drug officials, and a panel of experts said on Wednesday that physicians and parents needed to be warned of the risk. (The New York Times March 23, 2006).

Page 1 of 3 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 3 | Next