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ADHD Ritalin stunts growth and may cause brain damageBy Creative(54,965)   Posted Saturday, September 22, 2007 View All Blog Posts submitted by Creative I've long had my suspicions about the disorder known as ADHD and indeed have written about it on a couple of occasions, and the more I read the less convinced I am that this behavioral imbalance is a disorder and not just the result of poor diet and one that is rich in additives, and a certain lifestyle that no longer accommodates active children needs. Bearing in mind that being active is not a disorder at least it never used to be. I only need to look back to my own youth and how much more freedom children had to roam around and be active compared to now when we wrap them in cotton wool and confine them to home turf for what we believe is their own safety. I have more lately been reading about ADHD in adults. Is this a genuine condition or is it part of the pharmaceutical companies plan to expand? All I know is that when I read through the list of ADHD symptoms, I have many of them. Yet I am a fully functioning all be it eccentric individual and certainly do not need speed like drugs to slow me down.
My concern that is that what they call ADHD is a personality type rather than a mental disorder. I can recall the type A,B and C personalities we discussed in business studies. Type A's being very restless,manic etc. Has ADHD replaced what was previously known as Type A personality? If this is not the case, then surely there must be something other than amphetemines we can prescribe for children.
Meanwhile one article I read on this subject reflects the personal opinion of a Mike Adams. In his article: Mike Adam's says: The psychiatric industry, of course, has been trying to play down the growth-stunting effects of Ritalin for at least a decade. Research conducted over the last several years by psychiatrists working for the National Institutes of Health initially found evidence of the drug stunting growth of children, yet nevertheless concluded that Ritalin carries "no long-term growth risk" to children. (Those researchers, by the way, failed to disclose their financial conflicts of interest with drug companies.) Clearly this is Mike Adams personal opinion, but a quick Google of Does Ritalin cause brain damage?reveals a host of information where the use of Ritalin is questioned and concerns are expressed. One such article can be found in The EveningStandard-London. Meanwhile in relation to stunted growth, The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry did research into the effects Ritalin may have on growth and concluded as follows: Conclusions: Stimulant-naive school-age children with Combined type attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were, as a group, larger than expected from norms before treatment but show stimulant-related decreases in growth rates after initiation of treatment, which appeared to reach asymptotes within 3 years without evidence of growth rebound. I am really afraid that this practice of prescribing Ritalin to children with ADHD is premature and that the long term affects are incalculable and more research is needed into alternatives,the drug itself and the condition known as ADHD.
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On the 27th September bloggers are uniting around the world to blog against abuse. If you wish to participate, blog about what concerns you on the 27th. This Blog Post has been read 575 times. Posted to ProBlogs.com on Saturday, September 22, 2007 View other posts by Creative Comments on this blog post: Sue Clark-Wittenberg from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: (209 days 1 hour ago.) This article is very interesting indeed. Many psychiatric drugs cause brain damage according to New York State psychiatrist Dr. Peter R. Breggin. He has written many books which can be found at his huge website at the URL: www.breggin.com I took 14 different types of psychiatric medications over a period of 18 years from 1972 to 1990. 7 of those medications cause brain damage. No psychiatrist ever told me of the potential risks of taking these medications. There is no scientific proof nor test to prove that mental illness exists, but routinely most psychiatrists look in the DSM IV book called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Dr. Paula J. Caplan wrote an excellent book called "They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal On the back cover of this book it reads: "By debunking and demystifying the process through which the American Psychiatric Association determines who is and who is not "normal", They Say You're Crazy gives the rest of a fighting chance to avoid becoming victims of the mental- health establishment" - The Cleveland Plain Dealer Dr. Peter R. Breggin has written an article this year in 2007 called "Disturbing News for Shock Doctors and Patients Alike" which he discusses the Sackeim report which states that electroshock also known as shock and ECT always causes brain damage. See the article at the URL: www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin Other websites exposing psychiatry: www.breggin.com http://capa.oise.utoronto.ca http://capacanada.wordpress.com www.mindfreedom.org www.ect.org http://psychiatrybuster.blogspot.com http://wittenbergces.blogspot.com http://symclark.blogspot.com www.wildestcolts.com http://endofshock.com www.psychrights.org www.antipsychiatry.org www.stopshrinks.org www.szasz.com www.sntp.net/brain_damage.htm www.antipsychiatry.org/br-afb.htm www.antipsychiatry.org/drugs.htm http://geeman-headquarters.com/toxicdrugs.html B. Fowler from Tulsa, Okla: (199 days 21 hours ago.) I don't know where you heard it is personality type. There is actual proof that children and adults with A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. have a chemical disruption of the brain. It can be seen on a fMRI (functional MRI). In A.D.D. it is near the pituitary gland. In A.D.H.D. the chemical disruption occurs near the hippocampus. A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. is not just a matter of being overlly active, it has to do with not being able to complete task and consintrait. Children and adults that suffer from one are the other struggle with evan the simple task of reading a book are completing there homework. Having ADD is like having 10 people at once talking to you and you tring to understand and comprehend what each of those ten people are saying all at the same time. Now, I'm not saying that the Medication for ADD or ADHD is good for you by any means. But if you research and look almost everything we intake cause some type of damage to our bodies. Any antibiotic a person takes is toxic. I do agree alot of children are given ADD and ADHD medication when they don't need it. But, there are cases that children and adults do need ADD medications. That being said, it is up to the Doctors and Pharmacist to tell you, the "good and the bad" about any medication you take. Most of the time a Pharmacist knows more about medications then Doctors do. There are many sorces referance on anything you want to know or "Hear" and there is always going to be someone who has something bad to say about anthing you can think of and have some type of proof to back it up. In some cases the proof is only partial or conditional. And there will alway be research that finds that something that causes damage to some part of the body. The point of the medical care is to weigh out, "Is the damaged being done to the person out weighing the benefits", and how can we make this medication safer and better in the futher. Ritalin, is one of the older medications currently on the market. And useally the first ones out are the ones that have the most side effects and or/are complications. The same thing happened when insulan for diabetic was 1st released. There are many newer medications out there for the treatment of ADD and ADHD. All, medical providers and health care officails are tring to do is help people have a better quality of life and equal opportunity to learn, be producative and help children and adults that struggle with and every day task. It takes ten times the effort for a person with ADD or ADHD to complete a task that would be a some what complicated task for a person without ADD or ADHD. In the past 100-200 years medical care has come along ways. Before people start to judge to much give the reseachers time to explain. The ratio, circumstance and conditions of the damage done. At least people aren't being burnt a alive are given frontal lobotomy any longer. If you want to say its all about money, the US is one of the few civalized countries that don't supply national health care coverage for there citizens. But thats another topic. One extra piece of inforamtion. ADD and ADHD is nearly alway but not always exclusively accompanied with another form of phycological defect. Comment by Creative(54,965) (199 days 20 hours ago.)
Thank you Sue and B Fowler, these are two very different sides of the same coin and I see very important elements in both of them. Both present great additions to this difficult topic as both express the variety of concerns in this area. With regard to my concern that some cases of ADD reflect perhaps a type A personality, and the brain scan research. I think it is entirely possible a type A personality would also show a difference on a brain scan.I expect different people to have different brain scan results, so that in itself is not neccessarily of major concern to me at least, what is of concern to me is what is causing these traits to be exagerated..diet/pollution/chemicals etc. Meanwhile I shall look more into this and write a new blog on it shortly. Thank you for your very valuable contributions. B.Fowler from Tulsa, Okla: (199 days 18 hours ago.) Here are the list reference's used. Laura A Freberg.(2006); Discovering Biological Psychology.(ADHD),42,47,240,478-480. Hockenberry & Hockenberry. Discovering Psychology (Fourth Edition). (Worth Publishers, New York, N.Y.,2004). http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/adhd-medications/MH00112 http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/trials/nimh-research-on-treatment-for-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd-questions-and-answers-about-the-multimodal-treatmen.shtml http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/ADHD/default.htm http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/03/06_adhd.shtml The other parts and process of the brain involved with ADD and ADHD are basel ganglia, brain stem, frontal lobe, cerebrum and cerebellum, frontal and temporal gray matter and the caudate nucleus. Curtis: (165 days 16 hours ago.) Here's some unique research on Ritalin: http://www.clearhavencenter.com/addictions-research/additional-substances/ritalin/ "Ritalin abuse" appears to be one of the top concerns of people looking for Ritalin in search engines. Leave a Public Comment or Question: Stem Cell Research Debate Disappears in a Moment. Honey a Day Keeps the Dr Away GEORGE D. SHUMAN: Author of "18 SECONDS" & "LAST BREATH" Part 2 of 2 GEORGE D. SHUMAN: Author of "18 SECONDS" & "LAST BREATH" Part 1 of 2 ADAM & EVE ASK: HOW DID WE GET TO THIS POINT? Part 4 of 6 Parts AUGUST 15, 2007 LMB COUNCIL MEETING REPORT BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE IS #1 AND A YEAR OLD! |
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