Ritalin May Cause Brain Damage In Children Reuters: Monday, November 12, 2001 - Commentary by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD

Ritalin May Cause Brain Damage In Children
Reuters: Monday, November 12, 2001

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12922-2001Nov11.html


washingtonpost.com

Ritalin May Cause Brain Change in Children


Reuters
Monday, November 12, 2001; Page A08

The stimulant Ritalin, a drug used to help children with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, may cause long-term changes in the brain,
researchers reported yesterday. 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
ADHD has never been proved to
exist; children said to have it--thus labeled, have never been proved to be
abnormal/diseased. This risk/benefit equation: treating a non-disease with
a brain-damaging, addictive substance, is never justifiable]

The changes look similar to those seen with other stimulants such as
amphetamine and cocaine, at least in rats, the team at the University of
Buffalo found.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
perhaps because methylphenidate is amphetamine-like
and is classified by the INCB and DEA with amphetamine, methamphetamine and
cocaine as Schedule II stimulants. They say it shares all side effects with
these drugs, addictive potential included. ]

"Clinicians consider Ritalin to be short-acting," Joan Baizer, a professor
of physiology and biophysics who led the study, said in a statement.

"When the active dose has worked its way through the system, they consider
it 'all gone.' Our research with gene expression in an animal model suggests
that it has the potential for causing long-lasting changes in brain cell
structure and function." 

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Get that "long-lasting changes in brain
cell structure and function." The CT/MRI brain scan research of 1986
throught the present leaves no doubt that long term Ritalin/amphetamine use
as "treatment" for the non-existent disease ADHD, not ADHD, causes "on
average 10% brain atrophy."]

But Baizer said that Ritalin, known generically as methylphenidate, probably
is not addictive in the way drugs of abuse are if it is used properly.

"Children have been given Ritalin daily for many years, and it is extremely
effective and beneficial, but it's not quite as simple as a short-acting
drug," she said. "We need to look at it more closely."  

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Virtually
all in medical academia are paid to insert that Ritalin is not addictive if
"used properly." As if the drug knows when it is legally prescribed, i.e.
whether take from the school nurse or off of school grounds]

 High
doses of amphetamine and cocaine have been found to switch on genes known as
"immediate early genes" in brain cells. One of the genes, called c-fos, has
been linked with addiction when it is activated in certain parts of the
brain.

The researchers gave rat pups sweetened milk carrying methylphenidate in
comparable doses and at similar times to what a child would get.

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
They use rats while we, here in the good old USA, give these same
poisons to 6 million of our own normal children, children--make no
mistake--who have no abnormality/disease until their "treatment" with these
drugs begins]

C-fos genes were activated in their brains in a pattern
similar to that seen in cocaine and amphetamine use, the researchers told a
meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego.

"These data do suggest that there are effects of Ritalin on cell function
that outlast the short term, and we should sort that out," Baizer said.

She said perhaps a gene chip -- a microarray -- could be used to see just
which genes are turned on and off by methylphenidate.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company







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