Children and Drugs
In the New York Times on Sunday August 19th, a front page article reported on impending legislation to bar schools and child protection services from telling parents they must put their children on drugs to treat conditions such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and ADHD.
Over the last 10 years, the diagnosis and treatment of ADD and ADHD has become an epidemic amongst American children. The most popular drug prescribed for this until recently has been Ritilin, a form of amphetamine. Recently, other similar drugs such as Metadate CD and Adderall have become even more popular. Last year, these drugs had sales of $758 million, 13% more than 1999, with over 20 million monthly prescriptions being made.
Bills are being put forward in Minnesota, Connecticut, Arizona, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Wisconsin. The reasons for the huge increase in the usage of these drugs is not for purely medical reasons, and the recourse to drugs is an inappropriate response to issues with much broader concerns is one of the main concerns of the bill's proponents. Another concern is that these drugs are addictive and that there is a growing social use in these drugs. However, these drugs are now being aggressively marketed directly to the "consumer", putting even more pressure on both the public and the medical profession to prescribe them.
It is hard to justify the extraordinary number of prescriptions of these drugs, when it outnumbers the number of similar prescriptions in Europe by at least 5 times. It can be argued that it is a symptom of the ever increasing medicalization of our lives, reflecting the power and influence of pharmaceutical organizations and the willing participation of the medical profession to prescribe these drugs.
The issues here are of great concern as we are looking at a huge number of children being given a drug for a condition whose diagnosis is not even clear. It is not possible to make a distinct laboratory diagnosis for ADD. Therefore diagnoses are made only on behavioral observation and without denying that such a condition exists, it is clear that many children labeled as ADD or ADHD do not have the condition. It is of even greater concern when teachers are making this decision and have been refusing to teach children unless they are on drugs. Parents have been pressured by the social services to put their children on medication, with threats of taking their children away from them if they decline.
There is now concern that children on these kinds of stimulant drugs could develop addictive tendencies towards other drugs later in life. Also, the question has to be asked as the emotional impact on children who have been on Ritilin for many years throughout their childhood.
The recourse to drugs for such problems is a denial of looking into the real causes of behavioral and learning disorders in children. For example, what are the children eating? Sugar, processed food and food low in nutrients is one place to start. Watching TV all the time or playing computer games from an early age is another one. There are many other emotional pressures children experience that cause problems at school, none of them the fault of the children, and just putting them on drugs only covers up the real reasons. Finally, school may often be boring and tedious, and the more independent children may act out as a reaction to this. If we decide for our own convenience to put children on drugs just because they are a nuisance, it denies their individuality and avoids asking the real question of how they can be helped.
Hopefully, with pending legislation the tide may begin to turn and the real needs of children will come before pharmaceutical companies profits and the convenience of some in the teaching profession and the social services. Children deserve better than being put on stimulants and anti-depressants, which is increasingly happening, even in children under the age of five.