Word: ritalin
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...bounds in the past decade, and the fact that this report was brought to light in a story in Saturday's New York Times has women's groups asking why nobody seemed to notice it before. After all, remember all the hubbub over the American Medical Association report that Ritalin use among two-year-olds was on the rise? Is that really more egregious than the finding that nine-year-old Thai girls are being sold en masse to work in sweatshops in L.A.'s garment district, or that the Russian mob runs a growing racket that promises young Latvian...
...greeted with nearly unanimous horror. Children's rights advocates and pediatricians were up in arms over the potential physical side effects of the drugs, which remain widely untested for pediatric use. And child psychologists across the country rolled up their sleeves in anticipation of an onslaught of newly Ritalin-free kids...
...many critics, however, Ritalin has become a symbol of everything that is wrong with our overdiagnosed and overprescribed society. Having ants in your pants is part of a healthy, normal childhood, they say. Why are we drugging our kids at younger and younger ages...
...even Ritalin's critics weren't prepared for the study in last week's Journal of the American Medical Association. A review of HMO and Medicaid prescription records shows that over the five-year period from 1991 to 1995, the number of stimulant prescriptions written for preschoolers (ages 2 to 4) increased twofold to threefold. That's a jump of 200% to 300%. Next we will be prescribing Ritalin for toddlers...
This is almost certainly not a good thing. Although Ritalin is a relatively mild drug with well-known side effects, nobody is sure what it does to the rapidly developing brain of the very young child. There are no good studies. That's why manufacturers warn against its use in children under 6. It says so right on the label. Doctors, of course, can prescribe drugs for so-called off-label use, but they usually do it when the diagnosis is clear and there are no alternatives...