InsightMag.com
New Research Indicts Ritalin
By Kelly Patricia O'Meara
komeara@InsightMag.com
A recent study reveals that the drug being prescribed to tens of millions
of school-age children for a scientifically unproved mental disorder is
more potent than cocaine.
Thirty years ago the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that Ritalin was
pharmacologically similar to cocaine in the pattern of abuse it fostered and cited it as a
Schedule II drug the most addictive in medical use. The Department of Justice also
cited Ritalin as a Schedule II drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and the Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) warned that "Ritalin substitutes for cocaine and d-
amphetamine in a number of behavioral paradigms."
Despite decades of official warnings and supporting research confirming the
similarities of methylphenidate (Ritalin) and cocaine, tens of millions of children in the
United States have been prescribed this psychotropic drug for a widely accepted yet
scientifically unproved mental condition: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD). Now a recently concluded study at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)
not only confirms the similarities of cocaine and Ritalin, but finds that Ritalin is more
potent than cocaine in its effect on the dopamine system, which many doctors believe is
one of the areas of the brain most affected by drugs such as Ritalin and cocaine.
The outcome of this research was so surprising that team leader Nora Volkow, a
psychiatrist who is associate laboratory director for life sciences at BNL, told the media
that she and the team were "shocked as hell" at the results. "The data," explains Volkow,
"clearly show that the notion that Ritalin is a weak stimulant is completely incorrect."
This revelation should be of no surprise to the medical and psychiatric communities,
given the already documented warnings about methylphenidate by federal law-
enforcement agencies and international organizations, but it is noteworthy on one level.
Volkow's newly released research reinforces what critics long have known that the
"medication" being prescribed for ADHD is not merely similar to cocaine but is in fact
more potent. And the results raise further questions about the validity and repercussions
of having an entire generation of children diagnosed with a "mental disorder" or "brain
disease" which to date has no basis in physical science.
Volkow's findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience and reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, may act as a wake-up call to parents,
educators and lawmakers who have yet to address the question of whether ADHD is a
real physical, medical or neurological disease that can be scientifically confirmed or is
even confirmable. Because the ADHD diagnosis is the No. 1 reason for drugging school-
age children, and Volkow's research reconfirms that Ritalin isn't just kid stuff, parents
may want to re-evaluate their child's treatment. The numbers alone are a telling sign of
where the push to medicate is going.
According to the DEA, the number of prescriptions written for Ritalin since 1991 has
increased by a factor of five (2.2 million) and about 80 percent of the 11 million
prescriptions written for Ritalin are to "treat" ADHD. This means that nearly 9 million
children have been prescribed the cocainelike "medication."
Furthermore, according to a study published last February in the Journal of the
American Medical Association, "Trends in the Prescribing of Psychotropic Medications
to Preschoolers," psychotropic medications have tripled in preschoolers ages 2 to 4
during a five-year period. More disturbing, say critics, given Volkow's recent revelations,
is that during the last 15 years the use of Ritalin increased by 311 percent for those ages
15 to 19 and 170 percent for those ages 5 to 14.
The most recent figures available reveal that in 1998 there were approximately 46
million children in kindergarten through grade 12. Twenty percent one of every five
children in school have been doped with the mind-altering drug.
This can be good news only for investors in the Swiss-based pharmaceutical
company Novartis, which makes Ritalin. For instance, if the number of children taking
the drug increased fivefold, so did the drug company's resultant profits and (presumably)
stock value. In a June 28, 1999, article, "Doping Kids," Insight estimated that Novartis
generated an increase in its stock-market value of $1,236 per child prescribed Ritalin.
Based on these evaluations, the drug company would have enjoyed an increased stock-
market value of approximately $10 billion or more since 1991.
In fact, the number of children being prescribed the cocainelike drug is rising at such
a rate that, while good for investors, if ADHD were based on science and were a
communicable disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would consider it
a major medical epidemic among America's youth. In the meantime, prescriptions
continue to increase even as researchers continue to focus on the effect of psychotropic
drugs such as Ritalin rather than on how scientifically to verify or validate the diagnosis.
And critics of this mass drugging have become convinced that is no accident.
Take neurologist Fred Baughman for example, who tells Insight, "Yes, they have
proved and we've known for decades that Ritalin alters/damages/changes the brain. But
with no evidence that ADHD is a disease we also know that these children are normal.
All this research [from Volkow at BNL] says to me is that 9 million children diagnosed
as having ADHD are being damaged by Ritalin just as with cocaine and every other
psychotropic drug."
"The point," explains Baughman, "is that normal children are being drugged exactly
like the Cali and Medellín cartels, but under the guise of medication to help and with all
in the medical community being knowing participants. She [Volkow] found something
very alarming about Ritalin and at the same time is writing like ADHD is a proven thing
that ADHD is a real disease. It just isn't so. It's pure propaganda and there never has
been proof of a specific chemical [or] physical abnormality in children diagnosed with
the alleged ADHD. None."
Renay Tanner, an expert in human rights and psychiatry and a doctoral candidate in
sociomedical sciences at Columbia University, tells Insight, "Volkow isn't saying
anything new. She's just looked at the issue with a different technique. The important
thing to remember is that no child ever has died from ADHD, yet a number of children
have died from the 'treatment,' not to mention the brain damage, stunted growth and
suicidal feelings they experience. One has to ask why children are being targeted for the
myth of the chemical imbalance when no one can show that an alleged sufferer has a
chemical imbalance and no one certainly not the medical community even knows
what such a chemical imbalance might be."
Tanner continues: "The brain is too complex and our understanding of it is too
minimal to be giving children these drugs. We know the drugs cause harm to the brain
but have yet to find any real evidence that they are helpful. Sure, the drugs may shut them
up, and I suppose that's good for the parents and teachers, but is it good for the children?
I strongly believe that the federal government should remove the financial incentives
from school districts as a kind of reward for the number of children put on these drugs.
After all, why does the government do this? Is it good intentions gone bad or social
policy with unintended consequences? At the most, Volkow's research is excellent
evidence that children should not be given Ritalin. One has to ask why this research
wasn't done before millions of children were put on a mind-altering drug."
Despite Volkow's revelations about Ritalin's potency, critics don't see changes in
the status quo anytime soon. Beverly Eakman, founder of the National Education
Consortium, a nonprofit corporation specializing in education law, and the author of
Cloning of the American Mind, tells Insight, "The agenda is to dope as many kids as
possible because it makes them more suggestible more open to doing what normally
they wouldn't do."
According to Eakman, "These drugs make children more manageable, not
necessarily better. ADHD is a phenomenon, not a 'brain disease.' It is culture-caused,
and what we need to focus on is that we are manufacturing drugs for diseases that don't
exist. Because the diagnosis of ADHD is fraudulent, it doesn't matter whether a drug
'works.' You've got doctors being encouraged to prescribe these drugs whenever a
complaint from a patient is too difficult or costly to diagnose. Why aren't people up in
arms about the fact that children are being forced to take a drug that is stronger than
cocaine for a disease that is yet to be proven?"
Critics of the ADHD diagnosis have been asking this question for years, but the
psychiatric community appears to have turned more and more to medicating. A closer
look at what leaders in psychiatry are saying may prove helpful. In January, for example,
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Director Steve Hyman reported at the NIMH
Advisory Council meeting that "we can make correct clinical diagnoses if the right kind
of evaluation is available to children. When proper diagnosis is made,
methylphenidate/Ritalin can be safe and effective." Hyman warned: "We ignore mood
disorders in children at our peril. Just because a child is in their seat doesn't mean they
are okay."
Critics suggest that it also doesn't mean that they aren't okay, and that Hyman's
remarks only confirm that psychiatric diagnosis is subjective that diagnosis of mental
health depends upon who is looking.