ADHD Stimulant Drugs Addictive--Millions Misuse them_NIDA Study

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[sSRI-Research] ADHD Stimulant Drugs Addictive--Millions

Misuse them_NIDA Study

 

 

 

 

ADHD Stimulant Drugs Addictive--Millions Misuse them_NIDA Study

 

 

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)

Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability

www.ahrp.org

 

 

The Washington Post reports: " More than 7 million americans are

estimated to have misused stimulant drugs. "

 

For years leading child psychiatrists and the National Institute of

Mental Health refused to entertain evidence of stimulant drug abuse

and evidence suggesting that psychostimulant drugs--such as Ritalin--

were addictive. They ignored the long-term follow-up study by Dr.

Nadine Lambert of California; they ignored the warnings by Dr. Peter

Breggin--marginalizing him as a parriah.

 

But a new study by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA)

surveyed 67,000 households and found that 1.6 million teenagers and

young adults had misused stimulants, and that 75,000 " showed signs of

addiction. "

 

 

Recent revelations about these drugs' toxic effects--recently the

subject of an FDA advisory committee meeting--lead one to seriously

wonder:

 

How trustworthy is the advice of child psychiatrists, and psychiatry's

leadership who have falsely reassured parents about the safety of

these drugs?

 

Who bears greater responsibility--a street pusher of amphetamine or a

licensed doctor who prescribes the same addictive drugs for children

to modify their behavior?

 

Which is worse, the addicitive qualities or these drugs, or their

toxic effects on the liver and cardiovascular system?

 

You be the judge.

 

Dr. Nora Volkow, head of NIDA said bluntly: " You are playing

roulette, " she said. " If you get addicted, you will not only not get

into Harvard, you will not finish high school. "

 

AHRP calls upon the NIMH to immediately suspend the preschool ADHD

treatment study (PATS) which is exposing toddlers to these addictive

drugs!

 

 

 

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

212-595-8974

veracare

 

Millions Have Misused ADHD Stimulant Drugs, Study Says

 

 

By Shankar Vedantam

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, February 25, 2006; A09

 

 

More than 7 million Americans are estimated to have misused stimulant

drugs meant to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and

substantial numbers of teenagers and young adults appear to show signs

of addiction, according to a comprehensive national analysis tracking

such abuse.

 

The statistics are striking because many young people recreationally

using these drugs are seeking to boost academic and professional

performance, doctors say.

 

Although the drugs may allow people to stay awake longer and finish

work faster, scientists who published a new study concluded that about

1.6 million teenagers and young adults had misused these stimulants

during a 12-month period and that 75,000 showed signs of addiction.

 

The study published online this month in the journal Drug and Alcohol

Dependence culled data from a 2002 national survey of about 67,000

households.

 

The data paint a concrete and sobering picture of what many experts

have worried about for years, and present ethical and medical

challenges for a country where mental performance is highly valued and

where the number of prescriptions for these drugs has doubled every

five years, said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on

Drug Abuse.

 

" We live in a highly competitive society, and you want to get the top

grades and you know your colleagues are taking stimulants and you feel

pressured, " she said. " Yes, you are going to study better in the

middle of the night if you take one of these medications. The problem

is a certain percentage of people become addicted to them, and some

have toxic effects. "

 

Volkow said it was impossible to disentangle the skyrocketing

prescriptions of drugs for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

from the risks of diversion and abuse.

 

" As a child, you have multiple friends who are being treated with

stimulant medications, " she said. " You get the sense that these are

good. The message we are getting cannot be under-emphasized -- it has

become something routine. "

 

Studies have shown that the drugs are highly effective, especially

among children, and also that they reduce the risk of substance abuse

among those correctly diagnosed with the psychiatric disorder, which

is characterized by inattention and unruly behavior. Untreated ADHD

has also been associated with conduct and academic problems.

 

At the same time, there have been growing concerns that the drugs are

over-prescribed. A Food and Drug Administration panel earlier this

month warned that the medications carried risks of rare, but serious,

cardiovascular problems, and it recommended that the agency place

serious " black box " warnings on the drugs, as a way to restrain

spiraling prescriptions.

 

Lawrence Diller, a pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., who

prescribes the drugs but is worried about their overuse, said that the

new study showed the real health concerns are with diversion and

abuse, not with rare side effects. " Seventy-five thousand addicts to

prescription stimulants is much more troublesome than the 100 to 200

adults who have strokes, " he said. " Houston, we have got a problem

because we are just in the middle of this epidemic. "

 

The study found that both men and women were equally likely to be

misusing the drugs, but that women seemed to be at greater risk of

dependence -- characterized by a lack of control, physical need and

growing tolerance for the drug -- while men seemed to be at greater

risk of abuse, in which the medication was used in dangerous

situations, said lead author Larry Kroutil, who studies health

behavior and education at RTI International, a nonprofit research group.

 

To obtain their findings, Kroutil and a team of researchers culled

data from a 2002 national survey conducted by the federal government's

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). H.

Westley Clark, director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse

Treatment, said the 2002 data were obtained through face-to-face

interviews. RTI has not yet culled data from subsequent years

regarding the misuse of ADHD drugs.

 

Since then, prescription rates and the popularity of various drugs

have changed, and Kroutil said continuing research is needed to track

the phenomenon. Clark noted that data from 2003 suggested that the

problem of stimulant misuse was greater among young adults 18 to 25

years old than among teenagers.

 

The RTI study was paid for by Eli Lilly and Co., which makes the

non-stimulant ADHD drug Strattera. Although non-stimulant treatments

such as Strattera were an option for ADHD patients, they were often

not as potent as stimulant drugs, Volkow said.

 

Both Volkow and Scott Kollins, who heads Duke University's ADHD

program, said the full range of ADHD drugs is a valuable tool. But

Kollins said the study brought home what he has seen anecdotally: A

colleague who visited his college-age son's fraternity was mobbed by

requests for Adderall prescriptions by youngsters seeking to boost

academic performance.

 

" If I took Ritalin, I would probably stay up longer and write my

grants faster, " Kollins said. But besides the fact that he did not

think this is right, Kollins said the rare side effects highlighted by

the FDA panel meant people using the drugs for nonmedical purposes

were placing themselves at risk for those adverse events.

 

Volkow was more blunt: " You are playing roulette, " she said. " If you

get addicted, you will not only not get into Harvard, you will not

finish high school. "

 

© 2006 The Washington Post Company