Fw: Thom Hartmann newsletter; Dangers of stimulants?

[Guest guest]

Thom Hartmann's ADD/ADHD Newsletter

 

May, 2002

[ADD News] Should we be concerned about medications?

 

Although I've spent most of my life enjoying the role of the boy who

pointed out the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes, this is one time I hope

I'm wrong. Because if I'm right, it means we're doing some serious and

irreversible damage to millions of children and adults. As you know, I've

never been an opponent of medication for ADHD - my own son briefly took

Ritalin. I have for years, however, said that if we were to change our

schools to become more stimulating environments, then the need for

stimulant medications could be either eliminated or greatly reduced.

 

But now there's research out that has me concerned.

 

My curiosity on this started with the " ADHD is a disease " gang citing a

study done a few years ago (Nasrallah HA, Loney J, Olson SC,

McCalley-Whitters M, Kramer J, Jacoby CG. Cortical atrophy in young adults

with a history of hyperactivity in childhood. Psychiatry Res 1986

Mar;17/3:241-6) that showed that the frontal lobes of children and young

adults with ADHD were atrophied or less functional when compared to

" normal " people. In pointing this out, they were, of course, trying to

prove the recently discredited theory that ADHD is a genetic disease with

absolutely no redeeming virtues and no value in the human genome.

http://www.thomhartmann.com/websites.shtml

 

When I tracked down the study that showed ADDers with atrophied frontal

lobes, I found that 100 percent of the ADHD people whose brains were

scanned with PET scanners had been long-term users of Ritalin or other

stimulant drugs. Which raised in my mind the question: " Did the brain

atrophy occur as a result of the ADHD, or did the stimulant drugs cause

it? "

 

Interestingly, just over the past decade a number of researchers have been

asking similar questions, although few have been noticed by the ADHD

community because the results have had to do with other areas of science or

not been promoted by the pharmaceutical industry.

 

For example, it's well documented that users of the recreational drug

ecstasy (MDMA) suffer a long-term and probably permanent loss of brain

cells (neurones) that leads to long-term problems with short-term memory.

But why and how? A study published in 2000 in the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences of the USA found that it was the contamination

of ecstasy by amphetamine that was causing the brain damage, not the

ecstasy itself. To quote the study, " These initial observations suggest

that the sole use of ecstasy is not related to dopaminergic neurotoxicity

in humans. In contrast, the reported use of amphetamine by regular users of

ecstasy seems to be associated with a reduction in nigrostiatal DA

neurones. "

 

A study published in the Spring, 2001 issue of the Journal of Child and

Adolescent Psychopharmacology ( " Early methylphenidate administration to

young rats causes a persistent reduction in the density of striatal

dopamine transporters " ) looked at how the brains of rats changed when, as

youngsters, they were given methylphenidate (the generic name for Ritalin).

The researchers pointed out that nobody had ever looked into the long-term

brain effects of giving Ritalin to any mammal (including humans), saying,

" ?until now possible effects of this treatment [using Ritalin for ADHD] on

brain development and the maturation of monoaminergic systems have not been

investigated systematically. "

 

The study found that doses of methylphenidate (Ritalin) given during rat

childhood led to a permanent loss of up to half of the neurotransmitter

transporters in some parts of the rats' brains in adulthood. The language

was explicit: " ?the density of dopamine transporters (Bmax values of

[3H]-GBR binding in the striatum but not in the midbrain) was significantly

reduced after early methylphenidate administration (by 25% at day 45), and

this decline reached almost 50% at adulthood (day 70), that is, long after

termination of treatment. "

 

A dozen or more other studies - most funded by anti-drug- abuse agencies

within the federal government - have connected use of amphetamine (an

ingredient of the second-most popular ADHD medication) with long-term loss

of brain cells. Examples from the literature include: " Amphetamine-induced

loss of human dopamine transporter activity, " " A single exposure to

amphetamine is sufficient to induce long-term behavioral, neuroendocrine,

and neurochemicals sensitization in rats, " and " Changes in striatal D

sub(2)-receptor density following chronic treatment with amphetamine as

assessed with PET in nonhuman primates. "

 

The National Institute on Drug Abuse even promoted stem cell research in

the hope that it could provide cells to replace those burned out by

stimulant drugs. In a National Institutes of Health website, they note:

" Pluripotent stem cells offer a potential means of replacing neurons

destroyed by drug abuse. This will be especially useful for individuals who

have abused drugs such as methamphetamine, MDMA (ecstacy) and inhalants

which have been shown in animal and some human studies to cause long-term,

possibly permanent damage to selected areas of the brain.

 

" For example, recent research has shown that methamphetamine can have

significant toxic effects on dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons in the

brain. This is of particular concern because of the spreading use of this

drug and may be related to the dramatic behavioral effects, including the

development of psychotic-like behavior patterns that methamphetamine can

have in some people. Pluripotent stem cells stimulated to develop into

dopaminergic, serotonergic or other types of neurons, could offer a

potential means of replacing neurons destroyed by drug abuse. In this way,

we may be able to eventually reverse some of the debilitating behavioral

effects of drugs such as methamphetamine. "

www.nih.gov/news/stemcell/achieve.htm

 

In the past few years, a startling number of adults who've used stimulating

medications for ADHD for years have reported to me that their short-term

memory seems shot. All attributed it to aging, often making jokes about it.

 

 

Perhaps it's no joke. It's time for a dialogue on these studies and the

troubling questions they raise, and for us to again revisit the issue of

how we can improve our schools so that fewer children need medication to

succeed.

 

-- Thom

 

Here are a few websites relating to this newsletter (thanks to Vaudree

Lavallee and Bonnie Dennedy for much of this info):

some of the links are broken in this e-mail you can find them intact at:

www.thomhartmann.com/newsletter-2.shtml

 

www.ucsf.edu/cnba/Center/ JournalClub/Articles/9780.pdf

ethesis.helsinki.fi/ julkaisut/mat/farma/vk/mikkola/roleofbr.pdf

www.amphetamines.com/methylphenidate/longtermdop.html

www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma /articles/texts/2002_whitworth_1.pdf

www.unifr.ch/biochem/DREYER/drug sensitization.htm

www.psychiatry.wustl.edu/Resources/LiteratureList/ 2001/April/Volkow.pdf

 

 

 

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Rob Kall

Futurehealth, Inc.

211 N. Sycamore St., Newtown, PA 18940 215-504-1700, fax 215-860-5374

 

11th annual Winter Brain Meeting www.futurehealth.org/2003.htm

 

" Stories serve the purpose of consolidating whatever gains people or their

leaders have made or imagine they have made in their existing journey

thorough the world. "

Chinua Achebe Nigerian novelist

 

www.storycon.org

Storycon World's First Conference on the Science Art and Application of

Story, Sept 26-29, 2002, Palm Springs

 

 

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[Guest guest]

For many years, long before anyone else sounded an alarm about this, i was

advocating that we should have laws on the books to punish parents who give

dangerous drugs to their children. These studies are now pointing out that

these laws are needed.

 

Now, of course under the US Constitution we can't go back and catch anyone who

did this type of abuse before the law gets passed. But in the future, we really

should classify giving stimulant drugs to children as a form of child abuse.

 

The more i find out about this, the more evidence comes up that we really should

never do this sort of thing to kids.

 

As for Mr. Hartmann, i have some of his books, and often recommend his work

because he does provide some solid drug-free techniques for dealing with the

problems. It was a bit disappointing to see him make a statement saying he had

in the past felt that the drugs were ok.

 

I have as my consolation only the fact that progress has always depended on

unreasonable people. I am VERY unreasonable about using dope on kids, just to

force something to happen that appears to be education.

 

On Thu, 30 May 2002 21:27 -0500 John Draper <jdrape wrote:

 

 

Thom Hartmann's ADD/ADHD Newsletter

 

May, 2002

[ADD News] Should we be concerned about medications?

 

Although I've spent most of my life enjoying the role of the boy who

pointed out the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes, this is one time I hope

I'm wrong. Because if I'm right, it means we're doing some serious and

irreversible damage to millions of children and adults.