Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

"Long thought to be a condition of childhood that kids grow out of, recent research shows that up to 60 percent of children with ADHD continue having symptoms after they become adults. It's a common chronic disorder that affects about eight million grown-ups, or an estimated four to five percent of the U.S. adult population, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School and the World Health Organization. What's surprising is that only about 20 percent of them realize it, experts say. In an effort to draw attention to the disorder's impact on adults, the Attention Deficit Disorder Association and the U.S. Congress declared Sept. 7 a national awareness day for the condition. [...] �There are some people who did not have the classic symptoms as children; they didn't have problems in schools, but they have problems multi-tasking [as adults],� says Dr. Joseph Biederman, chief of pediatric psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. [...] People with ADHD are more likely to underperform in their jobs, more likely to divorce, abuse substances and have more driving accidents, studies show. Because ADHD is often accompanied by depression or other psychological problems in adults, many psychiatrists consider it a serious, under-treated condition. ADHD wasn't acknowledged by psychiatrists as a disorder affecting adults until 1987 when screening tests were adapted for grown-ups. Even now, more is known about how the condition affects children than adults. It's unclear why some children grow out of it, although as a person gets older, the brain and the central nervous system mature and develop, doctors note. Hyperactivity strikes boys three to 10 times more than girls, but adult ADHD affects men and women equally, studies indicate, although doctors are as yet unsure why. Because girls are more likely to have problems paying attention than hyperactivity, they're not as disruptive in classrooms. As a result, the condition is often overlooked in young females, but it's possible that as they grow up, more women seek treatment..." (Are you an adult with ADHD?, MSNBC, http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5889089, September 9, 2004)

"A new analysis of a large-scale survey released today [September 2004] estimates yearly household income losses due to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) within the U.S. at $77 billion, according to Harvard researcher, Joseph Biederman, M.D., co-author of the study. [...] Eight million adult Americans are estimated to struggle with the inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity of ADHD. Dr. Biederman spoke today at an American Medical Association media briefing on ADHD in New York City. �Our survey shows that ADHD is a highly disabling disorder with a significant effect on a broad range of areas of functioning, including education and employment,� Dr. Biederman said. �Even when matched for educational levels, ADHD individuals with a high school degree earn significantly less than their non-ADHD counterparts. On average, those with ADHD have household incomes that are about $10,791 lower for high school graduates and $4,334 lower for college graduates, compared to those who do not have ADHD.� �Adults with ADHD are less likely to have finished high school or to pursue further education,� Dr. Biederman said. "Higher education was not only associated with an expected higher income, but was also associated with higher rates of full-time employment. We found that compared to high school education, those with a college degree were 20 percentage points more likely to have full-time employment. ADHD's effects on the ability to have full-time employment indirectly accounts for 17 percent of the projected $77 billion in losses due to ADHD." (New analysis cites economic impact of ADHD, http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-09/ama-nac090304.php, American Association for the Advancement of Science(Eureka Alert), September 9, 2004)

During the 1980�s, Dr. Rusell Barkley a �nationally noted authority and author of Hyperactive Children� wrote that �ADHD children have particular trouble with what he calls �rule-governed behavior� [�] when ADHD children are paying attention to what they like, they don�t have an attention deficit. [�] �Somehow, neurologically, these children have a threshold for what rewards them that is set too high; it takes a more powerful reinforcer to get them to do what they are told. [�] These ADHD kids are like younger kids; they need immediate feedback and reinforcement.� (Endangered Minds; Why Children Don�t Think, Jane M. Healy, 1990, p.157-158) Echoed by Dr. Diane McGuiness: these children �are normally vigorous children �who refuse to abide by adult admonitions to sit still and conform to rules set by adults for their own convenience�. She makes the point that children�s bodies are designed by nature to be active, and the overly wiggly ones may really know what is good for them more than the docile types �who are overly conforming and remain for hours in sedentary positions�� (Endangered Minds; Why Children Don�t Think, Jane M. Healy, 1990, p.157) �Teaching students to talk through problems, thus developing conscious strategies for self-control, is the only therapy used thus far that appears to produce results lasting after drugs are discontinued. (C. Whalen, B. Henker, Hyperactive Children, 1980 � E. Kirby, L. Grimley, Understanding and Treating Attention Deficit Disorder, 1986 � W. Pelham, The Combination of Behavior Therapy and Methylphenidate in the Treatment of Attention Deficit Disorders: A therapy outcome study, Attention Deficit Disorder, Vol.3, 1988) In fact, this sort of �cognitive therapy� -�using language to control behavior�has been shown to help even without drug treatment. Some professional have gone so far as to suggest that the real disability is a lack of this type of teaching�both at home and at school. (Endangered Minds; Why Children Don�t Think, Jane M. Healy, 1990, p.156) "Professor Eric Taylor of the Institute of Psychiatry in London told the British Association of Science that bad parenting was not the cause of ADHD, although a chaotic lifestyle could be a trigger for the pattern of bad behaviour typifying ADHD, which he described as being impulsive, inattentive, disorganised and emotionally volatile. He also said that ignoring the problem could have serious repercussions and ADHD sufferers were four times more likely to suffer mental illness like manic depression, and engage in anti-social behaviour. [Although I would question what percentage of these were already on medication � and was the medication causing this problem?] �Brain scans show that people with ADHD have less development of the right frontal lobe, parts of the cerebellum, and the basal ganglia. It's not a problem that depends on the society; the Chinese and South Africans have reported it,� The Telegraph quoted Taylor as saying. ADHD, however, is not a purely negative condition, added Taylor. "Billy Connolly has identified himself as having it, so has Robin Williams," he said..." (ADHD kids at four-fold risk of subsequent mental problems, http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=47544&cat=World, London, September 9, 2004)

�In ADHD children, both systems of stimulation and repression are not working correctly. Some studies suggest that ADHD Children/Adults may have only ten to twenty-five percent of these two neurotransmitters found in the normal brain. Inattention and distractibility appear to be related to low levels of Norepinephrine. ADHD Children/Adults can't judge which things in their environment are important and which should be ignored. ADHD Children/Adults often feel the flight path of a fly in the room is as important as the teacher's algebra lesson. To the ADHD Child/Adult, everything on the desk is equally interesting and worthy of attention. Low levels of Norepinephrine also make it very difficult for ADHD Children/Adults to sustain their focus on a task, plan ahead, and understand such concepts as sequence and time. The impulse and behavior problems found in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) appear related to low levels of Dopamine in the brain. When dopamine levels are normal, we can repress the urge to do or say something in public, grab something interesting on a desk, blurt out our opinion, or touch/poke someone who has just walked within our physical range. Low levels of dopamine in the brain makes control of impulsive behavior almost impossible in the ADHD Child/Adult. [�] ADHD Children typically have many academic problems. Despite being intelligent, academic performance is often below grade level. The best way to visualize the difficulty is to image an automobile with a Rolls Royce engine (the IQ/ability) and a go-cart transmission (attention/concentration system). The power of the engine is not getting to the wheels due to a difference in the transmission capability. Engine performance is only as powerful and efficient as the transmission system. If a child's intellectual ability (IQ) is measured at 115 and his/her concentration "IQ" is 75 - academic performance will most likely be at the "75" level - with hyperfocus bursts of sheer genius at times. In this situation we find very bright children often performing one or two grades behind despite amazing abilities to reprogram the school computers. Without treatment, ADHD Children rapidly lose ground in school. Imagine an ADHD Child with only 75% concentration. For each grade completed, he/she retains 75% despite the IQ level. After four grades in school, the ADHD Child has retained only three grades and is now one grade behind. At this point, the child begins failing and lacks the foundation to understand some more complex math concepts.� (Dr. Joe Carver, http://www.drjoecarver.com)

Also read: ADHD/ADD Causes, Diagnosis, Behavioral Patterns, Discipline/Management

In the U.K. �A quarter of a million NHS prescriptions for Ritalin are handed out each year to children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). More private prescriptions for the drug - an amphetamine with many properties similar to cocaine - are also written by doctors in Britain. ADHD is now estimated to affect one in 10 boys in the UK, where one in five sufferers are girls. (Daily Mirror, UK, June 3 2004) �Around 250,000 in children in Britain are believed to have ADHD. Around 80,000 have the more severe form of the disorder. [�] Professor Taylor said: �Those parts of the brain that are under-active are those that we use for stopping ourselves, for holding ourselves back.� He said only a third of children with the severe form of the disorder were receiving medication. �It is under-recognized because of people with a severe problem that need medication, only about a third of them are getting it.�� (BBC, ADHD parents 'are also affected, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3640346.stm, September 9, 2004)

�Researchers believe genetics play a large role in ADHD. Due to developmental and genetic factors that affect biochemical and metabolic function, 30 to 40 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD have relatives with the disorder. Recent advances in technology have allowed researchers to study the brain structure and functions more closely, revealing that the brains of children with ADHD differ from those of children without the disorder. [�] According to newly released guidelines for the treatment of ADHD, issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, primary care clinicians should establish a treatment program that recognizes ADHD as a chronic condition. If appropriate, the clinician should recommend behavior therapy and/or stimulant medication to improve specific symptoms in children with ADHD. (American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). "AAP Releases New Guidelines For Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder," October 1, 2001 � Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed scientific journal of AAP) The combination of these two main types of treatment is often recommended as a total treatment program. A total treatment program requires a coordinated effort among many people, including the child, the family, the school, physicians, and other health-care professionals. This approach includes parent education and training in ADHD, behavior management techniques, an appropriate school environment, family counseling, and medication. There are more than 200 studies showing that stimulants, such as methylphenidate, are the most effective medications for managing the symptoms of ADHD. These medications are effective in decreasing impulsivity and hyperactivity, and increasing attention. Approximately 70 to 80 percent of children and adults with ADHD respond positively to medication. The latest treatments for ADHD offer longer duration symptom control throughout the day. Twelve-hour, once-daily dosing is also available providing children and adolescents the option of taking medication once in the morning before school while benefiting from consistent symptom management through after-school activities, homework and family time.� (http://www.aboutourkids.org/aboutour/articles/adhd_facts.html)

Contrasting Views on Behavioral Problems

�A little boy goes to the doctor�s office and says his tummy hurts. The doctor gives him an antibiotic and sends him home. Next day he�s back in saying his tummy still hurts. The doctor gives him something stronger in a pain pill and sends him home. Next day the little boy is back saying his tummy still hurts. The doctor gives him something even stronger in a pain shot. Next day the little boy�s tummy still hurts, but this time he goes to grandma and tells her his tummy hurts. When she asks what happened today, the little boy replies, �Same thing that happens every day. My alarm clock goes off, my big brother walks in the room, punches me in the tummy and yells, GET UP!�� (http://www.resultsproject.net/lab_tests_vs.html)

�Can a psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor or family doctor diagnose you as having ADD or ADHD visually from an evaluation? Yes. But can they visually diagnose what �caused� the ADD symptoms? Absolutely not. Unless you do a lab test, any prescription or treatment will just be a guess based on hit and miss. According to the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association there is no lab test for ADD. But according to over 35,000 published research papers there are lab tests for what causes ADD symptoms.� [�] Get a hair analysis as the first step of lab tests for causes. (http://www.resultsproject.net/lab_tests_vs.html) �According to Nick Giovannelli, of the Hyperactive Children's Support Group, around two thirds of the children prescribed Ritalin could see a major improvement in behaviour with a simple change of diet. Of the 1,000 or so "hyperactive" children whose parents contact the charity each year, a third are found to have a severe intolerance to E numbers and other artificial food additives. A further third have a high sensitivity to natural ingredients such as gluten or lactose. Only 33 per cent turn out to have mental health problems not affected by diet�� (Daily Mirror, UK, June 3 2004)

�The Poster Child for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder�

� �" Austin, who was hailed as �the poster child for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.� He had been kicked out of 11 preschools in three years for doing everything from shouting obscenities and hitting other children to poking a teacher in the eye with a pencil. He was prescribed stimulants. But after a blockage was removed from his colon, he suddenly stopped terrorizing his teachers and classmates. Austin, who is now nine, was able to sit quietly and was a joy to be around. He gave up the medication. His mother said she never would have thought to connect Austin�s behavior with the chronic constipation he had suffered since infancy. �The bad behaviors disappear as soon as the impaction is removed,� said Dr. Paul Hyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City..." (http://www.cchr.org/topics/abuse/cases/page01.htm)

� �In Addition, although very rare, symptoms of chronic physical problems, such as thyroid difficulties, sometimes can mimic symptoms of ADHD.� (Parenting The Strong-Willed Child, Rex Forehand & Nicholas Long, 2002, p.51)

�Vitamins & Minerals�

� �Magnesium deficiency in children is characterized by excessive fidgeting, anxious restlessness, psychomotor instability and learning difficulties in the presence of normal IQ. (Magnesium in Health and Disease, Seelig, 1980) In a double blind, cross-over study published in Biological Psychiatry (Vol. 14, no.5, 1979), Vitamin B6 was found to be more effective than methylphenidate (Ritalin) in a group of hyperactive children. Zinc deficiency may make children irritable, tearful, sullen and have gaze aversion, Moynahan, Zinc Deficiency and Disturbances of Mood and Behavior, Lancet, 1:91, 1976.� (Dr. Mary Ann Block's Approach to Autism Spectrum Disorders, http://www.blockcenter.com/pages/pages_autism.asp)

� �boys given 100 percent of the U.S. recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals showed a 38 percent decline in serious rule violations�� Presley pushed for a more comprehensive follow-up study in 1994, but former Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed his legislation in a dispute over who would appoint the committee to oversee the research. The idea has been stalled ever since...� (http://www.resultsproject.net/SR_on_Nutrition_&_Violence.html)

� �There are many new studies, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, with enough numbers to be Statistically Significant, as we are so used to seeing, but these are years away from being reported. Many are not subject to double blinding or placebo control, such as near-terminal Cancer cases, Genetic Disorders with progressive downhill course, and Immune Dysfunction diseases which are epidemic, overwhelming us over the past 2-3 decades, and for which we have no cure --- nor even satisfactory or safe relief of the symptoms, with our conventional therapy. Asthma, Lupus, Hepatitis C, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis; Cancer, ADD-ADHD, Fibromyalgia, Diabetes types I and II, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, AIDS, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn�s Disease, Down Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy , ALS (Lou Gehrig�s Disease), are just a few examples. Administration of Glyconutrients has resulted in improvement or remission, without any harmful side effects, in each of these conditions, as documented in reports or publication in peer-reviewed Medical Journals. [�] Glyconutrients are not a treatment, mitigation, or cure for any disease, but if these food supplements are supplied in the diet, the body can heal itself of virtually anything wrong! [�] The Natural Killer Cells, necessary as the first line of defense against Infection and Cancer, are reduced by 30% in even the �normal� population in the past 2 decades, and are further falling by 3% per year. No wonder 250,000,000 of the US population are suffering from some form of acute or chronic disease! These NKcells are restored to normal numbers in those receiving Glyconutrients.� (Rayburne W. Goen, Sr. MD, http://www.resultsproject.net/medpros.html)

�Additives�

� �A group of 277 three-year-olds on the Isle of Wight were tested for sensitivity to food additives over a period of months by researchers from Southampton University�� "Manufacturers include additives and E numbers to make foods more attractive to kids," says nutritionist Patrick Holford. "Either they make them look better or taste better. "One of the worst offenders is tatrazine, which gives squash and other foods their orange colour. It also makes a significant proportion of children hyperactive. "Tatrazine is also an 'anti-nutrient' which means it depletes the body of zinc, an essential mineral for children because it boosts the immune system and reduces the risk of allergy. �In one study, four out of 10 children developed eczema or asthma within 45 minutes of being fed it.� Two other main offenders are monosodium glutamate (MSG) found in some potato crisps and caffeine. Both can cause hyperactivity and behavioural problems - and some kids are more badly affected than others. "These children may already have a tendency towards hyperactivity, difficulty concentrating and problems regulating their blood sugar," says Patrick. "And serious problems arise because these brain stimulants tip them over the edge. "It's a fact that certain chemicals in foods are acting like drugs in children and should be avoided at all costs�� (Daily Mirror, UK, June 3 2004)

�Soy Formula�

� �Use of soy formula has caused zinc deficiency in infants. Aluminum [which is linked to Alzheimer�s] content of soy formula is ten times greater than milk-based formula and 100 times greater than unprocessed milk." While soy milk is tried on infants with milk allergies, allergy to soy products is almost as common. The lack of cholesterol in soy infant formula could inhibit brain development since cholesterol is essential for the brain and nervous system...� (http://www.livingharvest.com/content/Are%20Soy%20Products%20Dangerous.pdf)

�Rapid-Fire Culture�

� �Our children are massively over-stimulated. This over-stimulation interferes with ability to be self-directed. It interferes with the quality of awareness and attention. It interferes with physiology, neurology, Biochemistry. An over-stimulated mind and body cannot rest, does not know calm.� (Sound, http://www.wildestcolts.com/booklet/booklet3.html) We are "a nation strung out on excitement [�] by 1975, 150,000 children in the United States were being prescribed drugs�� (Ritalin Nation: Rapid-Fire Culture and the Transformation of Human Consciousness, Richard Degrandpre, 2000)

�Video & The Brain�

� �The notion that television overdevelops the right hemisphere is giving way to the much greater possibility that it underdevelops several areas and/or the connections between them. Not only left-hemisphere language systems, but also higher-order organizational abilities, including the all-important control, motivation, and planning functions of the prefrontal lobes, may be in jeopardy for children who watch without expending much mental effort. All these functions may have sensitive periods when they are particularly susceptible to variations in stimulation, but it is difficult to determine which age periods are more critical than others or how much exposure is needed to cause physical effects.� (Endangered Minds; Why Children Don�t Think, Jane M. Healy, 1990, p.216)

� �While sitting quietly in front of the TV, the child sees people punching each other on the screen. There is the impulse to react -- the fight-or-flight instinct is activated -- but since it would be absurd to react to a television fight, the child suppresses the emotion. As the fighting continues, so does the cycle of impulse and suppression. Throughout the television-viewing experience, the child is drawn back and forth on this see-saw of action and suppression, all the while appearing zapped and inactive. When the set goes off, this stored-up energy bursts forth in the disorganized, frantic behavior that we associate with hyperactivity. Often, the only calming act is to again put the set on, which starts the cycle anew.� (Acceleration of the Nervous System, http://www.wildestcolts.com/booklet/booklet3.html)

�The Gifted Brain Misdiagnosed'

Some gifted children "derive great joy from their boundless physical and verbal enthusiasm and activity, but others may find them overwhelming. At home and at school, these children seem never to be still. They may talk constantly. Adults and peers want to tell them to sit down and be quiet! The Psychomotor OE child has the potential of being misdiagnosed as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)." (Overexcitability and the gifted, Sharon Lind, August 2002, http://www.sengifted.org/articles_social/Lind_OverexcitabilityAndTheGifted.shtml)

'ADHD Fraud'

5 million children drugged with no proven abnormalities.

See videos by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD,

ADHD: A Total 100% Fraud using Modem using Cable

Psychiatry is in your childs School and its NOT in their best interest. using Modem using Cable

�Cortical Thickness

"[...] front part of the brain's memory hub, the hippocampus, tended to be enlarged [...] parts of an emotion-processing hub, the amygdala, were smaller [...] Symptoms improve in as many as a third or more of children with the disorder by their late teens..." (July 2006, http://www.nimh.nih.gov/press/adhdmirror.cfm)

Adverse Effects of Psychostimulants

Ritalin and Cancer

"The National Toxicology Program accepted responsibility for conducting trials on carcinogenicity and in June 1993 released results showing that feeding mice Ritalin induced liver tumors including very rare and highly malignant cancers. These results were found at levels close to those routinely prescribed for children..." (http://www.preventcancer.com/patients/children/ritalin.htm)

Psychotic Symptoms, School Shootings & Suicidal Tendencies

"The rate of psychotic symptoms that first appear during stimulant treatment has recently been investigated in a 5-year retrospectives study of children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Cherland and Fitzpatrick,1999). Among 192 children diagnosed with ADHD at the Canadian clinic, 98 had been placed on stimulant drugs, mostly methylphenidate. Psychotic symptoms developed in more than 9% of the children treated with methylphenidate. According to Cherland and Fitzpatrick, "The symptoms ceased as soon as the medication was removed" (p. 812). No psychotic symptoms were reported among the children with ADHD who did not receive stimulants. The psychotic symptoms caused by methylphenidate included hallucinations and paranoia. [...] Usually under pressure from a school, the parents instead acquiesced to put their child on stimulants prescribed by psychiatrists, family physicians, or pediatricians.) When these children developed depression, delusions, hallucinations, paranoid fears and other drug-induced reactions while taking stimulants, their physicians mistakenly concluded that the children suffered from "clinical depression," "schizophrenia" or "bipolar disorder" that has been "unmasked" by the medications. Instead of removing the child from the stimulants, these doctors mistakenly prescribed additional drugs, such as antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and neuroleptics. Children who were put on stimulants for "inattention" or "hyperactivity" ended up taking multiple adult psychiatric drugs that caused severe adverse effects, including psychoses and tardive dyskinesia. It is time to recognize that the supposedly increasing rates of "schizophrenia," "depression," and "bipolar disorder" in children in North America are often the direct result of treatment with psychiatric drugs. They should be classified as adverse drug reactions, not as primary psychiatric disorders..." (Dr. Breggin, http://www.breggin.com/ritalinconfirmingthehazards.html)

See the Fox News video about school shootings.

REPORT TO THE PLENARY SESSION OF THE NIH CONSENSUS CONFERENCE
ON ADHD AND ITS TREATMENT

November 18, 1998 presentation
by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
Read the full text at: http://www.breggin.com/RitalinNIHSPEECH.html

The points I will make today draw largely on published controlled clinical trials. The points are documented with dozens of citations to the literature in my scientific paper.

First, the psychostimulants have a dramatic and often irreversible impact on the brain. I asked NIH to deliver to the panel copies of a series of recent scientific papers confirming that two of the clinically used stimulants, amphetamine and methamphetamine, cause permanent, irreversible damage to the brain in the form of biochemical dysfunction, neurotransmitter receptor loss, and brain cell death. The data on methylphenidate indicates similar short-term effects but the research is too sparse and inconclusive on methylphenidate's long-term irreversibility. Potentially neurotoxic drugs should be contraindicated during childhood.

Second, even in carefully controlled clinical trials, 8 of which are reviewed in my paper, we know that serious ADRs--adverse drug reactions--occur at least at the rate of 8%. Furthermore, careful examinations of the children reveal ADRs in more than half of them. Looking only at the production of drug-induced obsessive-compulsive reactions, the most careful study from NIH shows a rate of 51% with several very severe reactions.

Third, we now know from animal studies that psychostimulants cause a persistent and probably at times irreversible weakening of heart muscle. A dozen or more cases of cardiac arrest have been reported to the FDA due to methylphenidate but these acute crises may have been caused by drug-induced arrhythmias perhaps in combination with hypertension. The weakening of heart muscle probable presents an as yet unstudied longer-term risk.

Fourth, psychostimulants inhibit growth, causing abnormally accelerated rebound growth when and if they are stopped. As demonstrated in a large body of literature, this suppression of growth takes place as a result of the disruption of growth hormone cycles. Perhaps unlike appetite suppression--which the drugs also cause--growth hormone disruption will impair the growth of all the organs of the body, including the brain. Since many children remain on methylphenidate throughout the year and for many years at a time, it can no longer be hoped that they will recover their growth during drug holidays. Furthermore, it must emphasized that the accelerated growth during rebound is itself abnormal. Rebound by no means indicates that normal structure and function of bodily organs has been achieved. The potentially negative effects of drug-induced cycles of growth suppression and rebound are beyond our current scientific appreciation but should be of grave concern. Considering the complex structure of the brain and the formative changes occurring in the brain throughout childhood--it is obviously hazardous to suppress growth while bathing the child's brain environment in toxic psychostimulants. In sound medical practice, a drug that causes growth suppression should be contraindicated for children.

Fifth, psychostimulants commonly cause a wide variety of psychiatric symptoms, including apathy and depression, obsessive/compulsive disorder, insomnia, agitation, and in the extreme, mania. As the drug wears off between doses, behavior commonly rebounds to a more extreme level of hyperactivity than before taking the drug. Practitioners are frequently unaware of the broad spectrum of CNS adverse reactions, including rebound, withdrawal, and dependence. As a result, many children who take psychostimulants are mistakenly diagnosed with new psychiatric disorders and subjected to additional medication. Frequently they are given antidepressants, antianxiety drugs, sedatives, and even neuroleptics, lately risperidone, when they really need to be withdrawn from psychostimulants.

Sixth, a vast number of experimental animal studies--combined with clinical studies of children--demonstrate the mechanism of action of psychostimulants: how they work to control behavior. The drugs make animals--and children--seem better through three closely related toxic mechanisms:

(1) Psychostimulants reduce the animal or child's spontaneous, self-generated, autonomous behavior, including socialization. This produces docility, passivity, social isolation and, in the extreme, robotic or zombie-like conformity. Lest the zombie-effect seem like an exaggeration, Drs. Arnold and Jensen in their Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry chapter refer to the zombie effect no less than three times.

(2) Psychostimulants enforce obsessive-compulsive or perseverative behavior in the animal or child. This produces abnormal concentration or persistence at otherwise boring or frustrating tasks that the child ordinarily avoids or resists.

(3) Psychostimulants reduce the animal or child's capacity to respond to nearby distractions, from loud noises and movements to the presence of other people. This makes the child seemingly "less distractible" but in fact the child suffers from drug-induced impairments in awareness and responsiveness to the environment. In effect, the child is made more isolated.

In short, the psychostimulants suppress basic spontaneity and sociability while enforcing obsessive behaviors and cutting off the animal or child from external stimuli.

These drug-induced impairments, taken together, can produce a docile caged animal who busies itself with obsessive behaviors. These drug-induced adverse effects also make children much easier to manage. This is especially true in structured settings that impose on the child social isolation and boring or frustrating tasks. Psychostimulants allow adults to control children without attending to their genuine basic needs for play and exercise, rational discipline, unconditional love, and in school--engaging, individualized, and developmentally appropriate education.

Ritalin & Suicide (affidavit)

"According to a recent report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, as many as 3.8 million school children, mostly boys, have ADHD. The disorder is characterized by a short attention span, jumpiness and impulsive behavior. But many cases are misdiagnosed, the study found. Additionally, at least a million children take Ritalin and the use of the drug has risen many times more during the past few years. Along with that increase, schools are using some heavy-handed tactics on parents who may balk at the medication. 'The schools are now using child protective services to enforce their own desires and their own policies,' said David Lansner, a New York City lawyer [...] 'This thing is so scary,' remarked Patricia Weathers, of Millbrook, a suburb of Poughkeepsie. Officials at the Millbrook school district called police and child protective services when she took her 9-year-old son, Michael Mozer, off medications earlier this year. She said a drug cocktail including Ritalin, the anti-depressant Paxil and Dexedrine, a stimulant like Ritalin, caused her boy to hallucinate. 'My son was a guinea pig,' said Weathers, who now sends the child to a private school. [...] 'This is a classic, perfect example of the overreach of Child Protective Services,' added Richard Wexler, Washington director for the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform and a former Times Union reporter. 'The parents aren't being neglectful, they are being cautious.' ..." (Times Union, Albany, New York, By RICK KARLIN , Staff writer, Sunday, May 7, 2000)

For more information on ADHD contact CHADD (www.chadd.org), a National non-profit organization, at 8181 Professional Place, Suite 201, Landover, Maryland 20785, Tel: (301) 306-7070 (800) 233-4050

Note: "In 1995... an investigative report by journalist J. Merrow aired on PBS which exposed new information on the group. Since 1988 Ciba-Geigy had quietly been giving CH.A.D.D. almost $1 million in grants and services..." (afn.org/~iguana/archives/1997_05/19970503.html)

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