The Grit: Are Doctors Overdoping Our Kids?
Ever tried cocaine, or meth? Would you give it to an eight-year-old? ’Course not. So why are we using close chemical relatives of these drugs to treat ADHD in children? Because they work? Read on.
There are just over 54 million five- to 17-year-olds in the United States. According to the latest figures nine percent of them (4.8 million) have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, otherwise known as ADHD. This is up 29 percent from over a decade ago. Either we are in the grip of an ADHD epidemic that is taking over America’s youth, or a growing percentage of childhood behavior is being medicalized.
Some facts:
— ADHD is a recognized mental illness, caused by a failure of the brain to produce enough dopamine. Dopamine has a calming effect on behavior, hence the fidgety, hyperactive, inattentiveness of those with ADHD.
— Surprisingly, in many instances, ADHD disappears by adulthood. No one knows why.
— ADHD is incurable. You can pay as much as you like to treat it, but it won’t go away.
—ADHD is widely agreed to be genetic. If something is in your genes, people tend to believe that changing environmental factors are not important.
— Other listed symptoms of the disease include “daydreaming,” “forgetting things,” and “having trouble taking turns,” behavior which, not that long ago, would be dismissed as, er, childish.
A large number of doctors are absolutely convinced that drug treatment is effective and successful. Many frazzled parents are grateful. But what about the poor kids in the middle of all this?
Most of America’s 4.8 million ADHD-diagnosed children are on some sort of medication to deal with their condition. This year around three million, or one in 20, children will be sent to school, tripping on legal prescription drugs.
One of the main brands of choice for treating children with ADHD is Ritalin (methylphenidate), which has a similar effect on the brain as cocaine. Prominent alternatives include Dexedrine and Adderall, which are both amphetamines. Ritalin is approved for use on children as young as six. Dexedrine and Adderall are approved for children as young as three. No one has any idea what applying these drugs to a developing brain over a long period of time actually does.
No one has any idea what applying these drugs to a developing brain over a long period of time actually does.
Putting aside any damage the compounds might be doing, let's consider what the best evidence available is telling us about how much the chemicals help. Short term (four to six weeks maximum), they suppress disruptive behavior. Long term, they have no beneficial effect whatsoever.
Then there are the side effects. Trying to cope with ADHD can be a living hell. Trying to cope with ADHD drugs can be as bad. Trawl the Internet, and a common theme arises from many of the people who use mental health pharmaceuticals: medication only offers a short-term fix.
Taylor Parkes was a long-term anti-depressant user:
A massively elevated seratonin level, brought about by these particular drugs, gives the brain's own seratonin system an easy ride. The effect is created not by producing extra seratonin, but by blocking the re-uptake of seratonin, resulting in the same stuff circulating endlessly in your brain: this effectively bypasses the natural neurological process. So, like the unused leg muscles of the chairbound, a large portion of your seratonin receptors begin to waste away. You don't notice, because in your brain the level stays high—but when you remove the drug and attempt to go back to producing the stuff naturally, you have a big problem.
For depression, read ADHD. For serotonin, read dopamine. Methylphenidate works by blocking dopamine reuptake in the neurons in much the same way antidepressants block serotonin.
Andy has ADHD and a type of muscular dystrophy:
If I'm involved with something that makes me feel happy then Ritalin seems to focus my mind on being happy. However if I'm feeling sad then Ritalin focuses my mind on being sad and this seems to make me feel very sad.
Dana Blankenhorn, who had ADHD as a child, gives us a glimpse of where treatment research could be going if we weren’t so dependent on pharmaceuticals:
Loud applause stimulates dopamine. It may explain why so many other ADHDers are so ambitious, so driven to succeed at their passions. We need more real attaboys to stimulate our limited dopamine receptors... I believe therapy is still highly recommended. The real answer lies in self-awareness, using ADHD’s gifts to concentrate and create, while being aware of its downsides and treating yourself more gently as a result.
and these users…?
"... loss of appetite, infrequent meltdowns when drug wears off at end of day..."
"... Felt as if bugs were crawling all over my body. Major 'head and spinal' zaps..."
"... I take a break from it on weekends, as I find the build up makes me cry..."
Well, your heart goes out to them.
What’s to be done? L. Alan Sroufe is a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development. He’s seen the explosion in ADHD diagnosis and the increasing reliance on chemical treatment. In the 1960s he took the view that “children with difficulty concentrating were suffering from a brain problem of genetic...origin.” Now he says, it’s not so simple:
“One of the most profound findings in behavioral neuroscience in recent years has been the clear evidence that the developing brain is shaped by experience.”
Yet the experience shaping millions of developing brains in America today is a childhood distorted by chemicals deemed so dangerous the DEA (not the FDA, the DEA) limits their production.
...the experience shaping millions of developing brains in America today is a childhood distorted by chemicals deemed so dangerous the DEA (not the FDA, the DEA) limits their production.
Professor Sroufe is now convinced that mass medication as a way of treating ADHD is inadequate, even though there are plenty of doctors who disagree.
What does seem desperately unfair is the willingness with which we are conducting this experiment on our young people.
Opponents call ADHD medication a chemical cosh, arguing it’s a quick, clumsy fix to an incredibly nuanced problem.
In the meantime, the lack of proven alternatives, and the institutional bias toward pharmaceutical intervention seems to be condemning an ever-growing number of young people to an anesthetized childhood.
Perhaps we should pause for a moment, and try to clear all our heads.
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