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| On Risperdal. Can he think straight, and for how much longer? |
Seriously? This is a very disturbing article about some very disturbing trends that are wiping out the creativity and the thinking capabilities of a whole generation of US schoolchildren.
Do not let this happen to your children and to our country. All comments are most welcome!
by Alan Schwarz, The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
CANTON, Ga. - When Dr. Michael Anderson hears about his low-income patients struggling in elementary school, he usually gives them a taste of some powerful medicine: Adderall.
The pills boost focus and impulse control in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although A.D.H.D is the diagnosis Dr. Anderson makes, he calls the disorder “made up” and “an excuse” to prescribe the pills to treat what he considers the children’s true ill - poor academic performance in inadequate schools.
“I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” said Dr. Anderson, a pediatrician
for many poor families in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta. “We’ve
decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s
environment. So we have to modify the kid.”
Dr. Anderson is one of the more outspoken proponents of an idea that is
gaining interest among some physicians. They are prescribing stimulants
to struggling students in schools starved of extra money - not to treat
A.D.H.D., necessarily, but to boost their academic performance.
It is not yet clear whether Dr. Anderson is representative of a widening
trend. But some experts note that as wealthy students abuse stimulants
to raise already-good grades in colleges and high schools, the
medications are being used on low-income elementary school children with
faltering grades and parents eager to see them succeed.
“We as a society have been unwilling to invest in very effective
non-pharmaceutical interventions for these children and their families,”
said Dr. Ramesh Raghavan, a child mental-health services researcher at
Washington University in St. Louis and an expert in prescription drug
use among low-income children. “We are effectively forcing local
community psychiatrists to use the only tool at their disposal, which is
psychotropic medications.”
Dr. Nancy Rappaport, a child psychiatrist in Cambridge, Mass., who works
primarily with lower-income children and their schools, added: “We are
seeing this more and more. We are using a chemical straitjacket instead
of doing things that are just as important to also do, sometimes more.”
Dr. Anderson’s instinct, he said, is that of a “social justice thinker”
who is “evening the scales a little bit.” He said that the children he
sees with academic problems are essentially “mismatched with their
environment” - square pegs chafing the round holes of public education.
Because their families can rarely afford behavior-based therapies like
tutoring and family counseling, he said, medication becomes the most
reliable and pragmatic way to redirect the student toward success.
“People who are getting A’s and B’s, I won’t give it to them,” he said.
For some parents the pills provide great relief. Jacqueline Williams
said she can’t thank Dr. Anderson enough for diagnosing A.D.H.D. in her
children - Eric, 15; Chekiara, 14; and Shamya, 11 - and prescribing
Concerta, a long-acting stimulant, for them all. She said each was
having trouble listening to instructions and concentrating on
schoolwork.
“My kids don’t want to take it, but I told them, ‘These are your grades
when you’re taking it, this is when you don’t,’ and they understood,”
Ms. Williams said, noting that Medicaid covers almost every penny of her doctor and prescription costs.
Some experts see little harm in a responsible physician using A.D.H.D.
medications to help a struggling student. Others - even among the many
like Dr. Rappaport who praise the use of stimulants as treatment for
classic A.D.H.D. - fear that doctors are exposing children to
unwarranted physical and psychological risks. Reported side effects of
the drugs have included growth suppression, increased blood pressure
and, in rare cases, psychotic episodes.
The disorder, which is characterized by severe inattention and
impulsivity, is an increasingly common psychiatric diagnosis among
American youth: about 9.5 percent of Americans ages 4 to 17 were judged
to have it in 2007, or about 5.4 million children, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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