Ritalin And Russian Roulette

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Ritalin And Russian Roulette

By Samuel Blumenfeld

NewsWithViews.com

2-14-5

 

http://rense.com/general62/rit.htmIt is estimated that in the United States

between four million and eight million children are on Ritalin, the drug

being used to change the behavior of children afflicted with a disease or

condition called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit

Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).

 

We already know that the long-term use of Ritalin can be fatal. In

March of 2000, a 14-year-old ninth-grader, Matthew Smith, dropped dead of a

heart attack while skateboarding. He had been on Ritalin since the first

grade. And in 1994, the very popular singer and song-writer, Kurt Cobain,

committed suicide at age 27. He was known as a " Ritalin child. "

 

What parents are not being told by psychiatrists who prescribe the

drug and the school nurses who give it to the kids, that taking Ritalin is

like playing Russian Roulette, simply because nobody can be sure what the

side-effects will be.

 

Recently, I happened to come across a copy of the latest Physicians'

Desk Reference on pharmaceuticals. It lists all of the drugs available to

physicians and provides the drug's Clinical Pharmacology, Indications and

Contraindications, Warnings, Precautions, Adverse Reactions, etc. So I

looked up Ritalin. Its generic name is methylphenidate hydrochloride. It

comes in two forms, a regular tablet, and a time-release tablet. It was

described as follows:

 

Ritalin is a mild central nervous system stimulant. The mode of

action in man is not completely understood, but Ritalin presumably activates

the brain stem arousal system and cortex to produce its stimulant effect.

There is neither specific evidence which clearly establishes the mechanism

whereby Ritalin produces its mental and behavioral effects in children, nor

conclusive evidence regarding how these effects relate to the condition of

the central nervous system.

 

So we really don't know exactly how the drug works in the brain, but

the book warns:

 

Ritalin should not be used in children under six years, since safety

and efficacy in this age group have not been established. Sufficient data on

safety and efficacy of long-term use of Ritalin in children are not yet

available. Although a causal relationship has not been established,

suppression of growth (i.e., weight gain, and/or height) has been reported

with the long-term use of stimulants in childrenÖ. Clinical experience

suggests that in psychotic children, administration of Ritalin may

exacerbate symptoms of behavior disturbance and thought disorder.

 

Was the student killer at Columbine who took Ritalin psychotic? If

so, he should not have been given the drug.

 

As for Adverse Reactions, otherwise known as side-effects, this is

what the Ritalin user may also experience: Nervousness, insomnia, skin rash,

urticaria (itching, burning, stinging, smooth patches usually red), fever,

arthralgia (pain in a joint), exfoliative (flaking) dermatitis, erythema

(skin redness) multiforme with histopathological (microscopic changes in

tissues) findings of necrotizing (death or decay of tissues) vasculitis

(blood vessels) and thrombocytopenic purpura (purplish patches), anorexia,

nausea, dizziness, palpitations, headache, dyskinesis (impairment of body

movements), drowsiness, blood pressure and pulse changes both up and down,

tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), angina, cardiac arrhythmia, abdominal pain,

weight loss during prolonged therapy. There have been rare reports of

Tourette's syndrome (tics). Toxic psychosis has been reported.

 

If that isn't playing Russian Roulette with a child's health, I

don't know what is. Note the number of cardiac side-effects, probably caused

by the constriction of blood vessels. That's what probably caused the heart

attack that killed Matthew Smith. We only hear about the worst tragedies.

Skin rashes, headaches, dizziness, nausea, and palpitations don't make the

headlines. They just make the users miserable.

 

Why would anyone subject a child to a drug with so many possible

harmful side-effects simply to " cure " an attention problem? How about

creating classrooms with more order and fewer distractions. The kind of

chaos that now exists in American primary schools is a result of the new

classroom configuration that creates attention problems.

 

You couldn't possibly have attention deficit disorder in the kind of

classrooms that existed when I went to school back in the 1930s and '40s. In

those days, the students sat at desks bolted to the floor arranged in

straight rows. The walls were generally bare, with no distractions. The

teacher was the focus of attention, and we were all taught the same thing.

No individual education plans. And the teacher used the most rational and

effective methods of instruction developed over the centuries. It was an

education system that produced what Tom Brokaw called the greatest

generation.

 

In other words, they knew how to educate well. We really don't have

to re-invent the wheel. But try telling that to today's educators, for whom

the successes of the past simply don't exist.

 

- Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of eight books on education,

including " Is Public Education Necessary? " and " The Whole Language/OBE

Fraud, " published by The Paradigm Company, 208-322-4440.

 

© 2005 Samuel Blumenfeld -

 

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