Word: ritalin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Slapping a "black box" warning on a prescription drug is not an action that the Food and Drug Administration takes lightly. So when an FDA advisory committee recommended on Thursday that the agency's strongest safety warnings be placed on packages of the massively popular drug Ritalin and similar stimulants used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its less frenetic cousin, ADD, the suggestion made national headlines and generally freaked out patients, parents and more than a few doctors...
...known to raise blood pressure and heart rate. "Raising blood pressure of a child or adult continuously over many years worries me," Nissen told TIME. "There is a linear relationship between increased blood pressure and adverse cardiovascular events." Nissen further notes that two stimulants that are related to the Ritalin class of drugs-ephedra and phenylpropanolamine (PPA)?have been banned from the market because of cardiovascular risks...
...meantime, doctors who prescribe these drugs are left to contend with jittery patients and their parents. "Are we now supposed to do regular EKG's on every kid on Ritalin?" asks Dr. Gabrielle Carlson, a child psychiatrist at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. "What on earth is the poor consumer...
...other psychiatrists point out that unlike Vioxx, Ritalin is a drug with a 50 year history. Says Dr. Hallowell, "I have never had a patient suffer a lethal side effect nor anything close to it. I have had to discontinue the medication, perhaps once out of every 10 times I prescribe it, due to side effects," which include weight loss, insomnia, tics and twitches, and personality changes. "These meds are far from perfect," says Hallowell, "but they are the best medication option we have and are very safe when used correctly...
Provigil, otherwise known as modafinil, was approved to help narcoleptics and shift workers stay awake. Lately it has joined the ranks of Ritalin as a popular performance aid. Some recent studies suggest it may indeed boost attention and mental acuity