What Does ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) Mean?

[Guest guest]

" What Does ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) Mean? "

 

 

U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section,1995

 

http://www.blockcenter.com/pages/pages_news.asp#6

 

U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section,1995

 

Methylphenidate (Ritalin®) - Overview

 

 

1. Ritalin is a Schedule II stimulate, structurally and

pharmacologically similar to amphetamines and cocaine and has the

same dependency profile of cocaine and other stimulants.

 

2. Ritalin produces amphetamine and cocaine-like reinforcing effects

including increased rate of euphoria and drug liking. Treatment with

Ritalin in childhood predisposes takers to cocaine's reinforcing

effects.

 

3. In humans, chronic administration of Ritalin produced tolerance

and showed cross-tolerance with cocaine and amphetamines.

 

4. Ritalin is chosen over cocaine in self-administered preference

studies in non-human primates.

 

5. Ritalin produces behavioral, physiological and reinforcing

effects

 

similar to amphetamines.

 

6. Ritalin substitutes for cocaine and amphetamines in scientific

studies.

 

7. Children medicated with Ritalin who tried cocaine reported higher

levels of drug dependence than those who had not used Ritalin.

 

8. Ritalin abuse is neither benign or rare in occurrence and is

accurately described as producing severe dependence. Sweden removed

Ritalin from its market in 1968 because of widespread abuse.

 

9. More high school seniors were abusing Ritalin than those taking

it medically prescribed.

 

Side-effects of Ritalin: increased blood pressure, heart rate,

respirations and temperature; appetite suppression, weight loss,

growth retardation; facial tics, muscle twitching, central nervous

system stimulation, euphoria, nervousness, irritability and

agitation, psychotic episodes, violent behavior, paranoid delusions,

hallucinations, bizarre behaviors, heart arrhythmias, palpitations

and high blood pressure; tolerance and psychological dependence and

death

 

10. Ritalin will affect normal children and adults the same as those

with attention and behavior problems. Effectiveness of Ritalin is

not diagnostic.

 

CHADD, non-profit organization, which promotes the use of Ritalin,

also receives a great deal of money from the drug manufacturer of

Ritalin. CHADD does not inform its members of the abuse problems of

Ritalin. CHADD portrays the drug as a benign, mild stimulant that is

not associated with abuse or serious side-effects. Statements by

CHADD are inconsistent with scientific literature.

 

11. The International Narcotics Control Board expressed concern that

CHADD is actively lobbying for the use of Ritalin in children.

 

12. Ritalin is one of the top ten drugs involved in drug thefts and

is being abused by health professionals as well as street addicts.

 

Note from Dr. Block: Since Adderall and Dexadrine are amphetamines,

the above statements would also be true of them.

 

 

 

 

 

1998 National Institutes of Health Conference on ADHD

Report Summary

 

 

& #9632; No valid, independent, consistent test available

& #9632; No data indicating it is a brain dysfunction

& #9632; Drugs don't normalize all behaviors

& #9632; Kids on drugs still have higher level of behavior problems

& #9632; Kids on drugs show little improvement in academic

 

and social skills

& #9632; No information on treatment for more than one year

& #9632; High doses of drugs cause hypertension, nervous and cardiovascular

systems damage

 

 

 

Colorado State Board of Education Resolution

Promoting The Use Of Academic Solutions To Resolve

Problems With Behavior, Attention, And Learning

 

 

Whereas, the Colorado State Board of Education is constitutionally

charged with the general supervision of K-12 public education; and,

Whereas, the Colorado State Board of Education dedicates itself to

increasing academic achievement levels for all students; and,

Whereas, the responsibility of school personnel is to ensure student

achievement; and,

Whereas, only medical personnel can recommend the use of

prescription medications; and,

Whereas, the Colorado State Board of Education recognizes that there

is much concern regarding the issue of appropriate and thorough

diagnosis and medication and their impact on student achievement;

and,

Whereas, there are documented incidences of highly negative

consequences in which psychiatric prescription drugs have been

utilized for what are essentially problems of discipline which may

be related to lack of academic success;

Therefore Be It Resolved, that the Colorado State Board of Education

encourage school personnel to use proven academic and/or classroom

management solutions to resolve behavior, attention, and learning

difficulties; and,

Be It Further Resolved, that the Colorado State Board of Education

encourage greater communication and education among parents,

educators, and medical professionals about the effects of

psychotropic drugs on student achievement and our ability to provide

a safe and civil learning environment.

 

November 11, 1999

 

 

 

 

 

Violence and Psychiatric Drugs

 

 

1. On May 25, 1997 18-year-old Jeremy Strohmeyer raped and murdered

a 7-year-old African American girl in Las Vegas, Nevada. Strohmeyer

had been diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Dexedrine, a Ritalin-like

drug, immediately prior to the killing.

 

2. On October 1, 1997, in Pearl Mississippi, 16-year-old Luke

Woodham stabbed his mother, 50-year-old Mary Woodham, to death and

then went to his high school where he shot nine people, killing two

teenage girls and wounding seven others. Published reports say he

was on Prozac.

 

3. Exactly two months later on Dec 1, 1997, Michael Carneal, a 14-

year-old, opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting in

West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were killed, five others

were wounded, one of whom was paralyzed. Carneal was reportedly on

Ritalin.

 

4. Then in February 1998, a young man in Huntsville, Alabama on

Ritalin went psychotic chopping up his parents with an ax and also

killing one sibling and almost murdering another.

 

5. On March 24, 1998 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, 11-year-old Andrew

Golden and 14-year-old Mitchell Johnson shot 15 people killing four

students, one teacher, and wounding 10 others. According to one

report, the boys were believed to be on Ritalin.

 

6. Two months later another grisly school massacre occurred. On May

21, 1998 15-year-old Kip Kinkel of Springfield, Oregon murdered his

parents and proceeded to his high school where he went on a rampage

killing two students and wounding 22 others. Kinkel had been

prescribed both Prozac and Ritalin.

 

7. On April 16, 1999, 15-year-old Shawn Cooper of Notus, Idaho took

a 12-gauge shot gun to school and started firing, injuring one

student and holding the school hostage for about 20 minutes.

Terrified students ran for their lives, some barricading themselves

in classrooms. Cooper had been taking Ritalin when he fired the

shotgun's rounds.

 

8. Eighteen-year-old Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher at

Columbine High School before killing himself. Harris was on one of

the SSRI anti-depressants called Luvox.

 

9. A month later to the day, on May 20, 1999 T.J. Solomon, a 15-year-

old high school student in Conyers, Georgia, on Ritalin®, opened

fire on and wounded six of his classmates. Thankfully, none were

killed.

 

10. Fourteen-year-old Rod Mathews who had been prescribed Ritalin®

since the third grade beat a classmate to death with a bat.

11. Nineteen-year-old James Wilson, who had been on psychiatric

drugs for 5 years, took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary

school in Breenwood, South Carolina, killing two young girls and

wounding seven other children and two teachers.

 

According to national news reports in January 1999, ten days after

Ryan Ehlis, a college student in Bismark, North Dakota, began taking

Adderall to control his attention deficit disorder and to help him

with his college studies, he slipped into a psychotic fog and killed

his infant daughter. He said God told him to do it. The courts found

him innocent after testimony by a psychiatrist and by the

manufacturer of the drug that the " psychotic state " was a very rare

side effect of Adderall use.

 

 

 

 

Side Effects of Drugs Used for ADHD

According to the manufacturers' drug inserts and to the Physician

Drug Reference, the following are some of the side effects

 

of the drugs commonly used for ADHD.

 

 

Amphetamine/amphetamine type

 

 

Ritalin: depression, chronic abuse can lead to tolerance and psychic

dependency with varying degrees of abnormal behavior. Frank

psychotic episodes can occur. Patients with agitation may react

adversely. CBC and platelet count (lab work) are advised. Long-term

affects have not been established.

Cardiac side effects: necrotizing vasculitis, thrombocytopenia

purpura, blood pressure and pulse changes, rapid heart beat, cardiac

arrhythmia, angina.

 

Adderall: Amphetamine with high potential for abuse, controlled

substance, may lead to drug dependence, may exacerbate behavior

disturbances and thought disorders, and psychotic episodes.

Cardiac side effects: palpitations, rapid heartbeat, hypertension,

cardiomyopathy with chronic use of amphetamines.

 

Dexedrine: Amphetamine with high potential for abuse, controlled

substance, may lead to drug dependence, psychotic episodes.

Cardiac side effects: palpitations, rapid heartbeat, hypertension,

cardiomyopathy with chronic amphetamine use.

 

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI)

 

Prozac: Anxiety, restlessness, mania/hypomania, seizures, suicide,

impaired judgment, agitation, amnesia, confusion, emotional

lability, apathy, depersonalization, hallucinations, hostility,

paranoid reaction, personality disorder, delusions.

Cardiac side effects: hemorrhage, hypertension, angina, arrhythmias,

congestive heart failure, heart attack, rapid heart beat, atrial

fibrillation, cerebral embolism, heart block.

 

Zoloft: Mania/hypomania, suicide, agitation, anxiety, emotional

lability, apathy, paranoid reactions, hallucinations, aggressive

reactions, delusions, illusion.

Cardiac side effects: heart palpitations, chest pain, hypertension,

rapid heartbeat, dizziness, syncope, fluid retention, heart attack.

 

Paxil: Mania/hypomania, impaired judgment, agitation, depression,

anxiety, drugged feeling, depersonalization, amnesia, emotional

lability, abnormal thinking, hallucinations, lack of emotion,

hostility, manic reaction, neurosis, paranoid reaction, antisocial

reaction, delirium, delusions, drug dependence, stupor.

Cardiac side effects: hypertension, rapid heartbeat, syncope; EKG

abnormalities, angina, heart attack.

 

Luvox: mania, apathy, amnesia, delusions, depersonalization, drug

dependence, emotional lability, hostility, paranoid reaction, and

phobia.

Cardiac side effects: hypertension, rapid heartbeat, syncope,

angina, heart failure, and heart attack.

 

OTHER DRUGS

 

Catapres: Adult high blood pressure drug: delirium, mental

depression, visual and auditory hallucinations, restlessness,

anxiety, agitation, irritability, other behavioral changes,

drowsiness.

Cardiac side-effects: congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular

accident (stroke), EKG abnormalities, arrhythmias, chest pain,

syncope, high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat and palpitations.

 

Wellbutrin: Agitation, anxiety, restlessness, delusions,

hallucinations, psychotic episodes, confusion, paranoia, mania,

seizures, hostility, depression, depersonalization, mood

instability, thought disorder, suicidal ideation.

Cardiac side effects: edema, chest pain, EKG abnormalities,

shortness of breath, heart attack.

 

Norpramine: Psychiatric disturbances, seizures, anxiety,

hallucinations, restlessness, agitation, nightmares, insomnia,

confusion, tremors.

Cardiac side effects: Sudden death in children, heart attack, heart

block, stroke, arrhythmias, rapid heart rate.

 

 

http://www.blockcenter.com/pages/pages_news.asp#6