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Please note that any comments expressed in these forum posts do not reflect the opinions of Medical News Today in any way at all. Opinions posted in this forum do not constitute medical
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Reliance on ADHD medication
posted by Ryan on 11 May 2011 at 3:20 amI believe that society relies on these medication to solve their children's ADHD problems. These shortages will force patients to counter ADHD with non-biomedical treatments. These ADHD medications are overly prescribed in the first place. With behavior or cognitive therapy you can counter this problem.
Read the news article that this opinion was posted about:
Lack Of ADHD Med Ingredients Make Patients Jumpy; FDA, DEA Involved
Symptom of something else
posted by Jack on 11 May 2011 at 3:53 am
ADHD so called diagnosis is the single most abused diagnosis. It's nothing but an excuse to drug kids up who don't need this stuff. These kids need more involved fathers. If you look at the majority of these kids, the parents are checked out and not involved with their lives, ESP the fathers. Kids don't need speed to calm them down, yes that is what this stuff I'd speed. This also stunts growth big time. This diagnosis cannot be proven by medical science either, it's the drug companies greed.
Seeking treatment from law enforcement?
posted by J on 11 May 2011 at 4:07 am
Nothing new here for those of us who are paying attention to such problems, but it really should concern the average American voter. What we see here is the increasingly common situation where disruption in medical treatment of any sort (ADHD is not the only place this is happening) is directly attributable to law enforcement's efforts to control supply and use of certain drugs.
The long arm of the law is reaching further and further across the boundary between drug warrioring and doctoring. They are testing the limits of what the public will tolerate, and the public appears to be asleep on the issue. It is a simple fact that many medicines which doctors use as legitimate treatments are the same drugs which drug warriors seek to control and essentially eliminate.
The drug warriors thus see denial of treatment as a success, and avoiding such disruption is not high on their list of priorities. As the drug warriors continue to collect larger and larger increases in funding from tax dollars, they move further and further into medical decision making. Chasing legal pharmaceutical drugs is easy, safe, and profitable for drug warrior bureacrats.
So, when faced with the question of what to do with windfall funding appropriations which are largely untethered as far as stipulated use, they can be expected to beef up their policing of medical usage and increase their involvement in making treatment decisions about your health based on their goal of controlling certain drugs.
Attacking doctors and legitimate medical professions who use drugs in their scientific approach to health care is not nearly as dangerous as fighting drug cartels across borders. Doctors usually don't fight back or even run, so storming medical offices in SWAT gear for fun and profit is a game which carries little or no risk. Americans have lost their ability to protest abuse of authority, there are relatively few negative consequences for interfering with medical care.
Like any skilled bureaucracy attempting to grow itself and provide more and more lucrative careers for more and more people, they have learned that turning their terror on law abiding doctors and sick people is profitable, safe and easy. They are moving slowly, and they pause for political damage assessment after each offensive, but they are largely proceding unopposed into the field of medical decision making.
Since there is essentially no complaint, they continue to expand into the domain of "playing doctor". Americans really should consider putting a stop to this. The next time you are sick, and you think about trying to obtain medical treatment, you should ask yourself how big of a role you want a police officer or a drug enforcement bureaucrat to have in the decisions about your treatment and health.
Remember, the medical professional has a duty and a goal to protect and enhance your health. Drug warriors do not. Their goals do not involve your health. And there seems to be increasing tolerance for "collateral damage" from their efforts to grow their bureaucracies and take over the medical and pharmaceutical fields as absolute dictators of policy with little responsibility for public health.
william
posted by William on 11 May 2011 at 4:22 am
What no drugs for the children. What shall we do?
Seriously?
posted by Rachel on 11 May 2011 at 6:58 am
@Jack (and others)- My father was incredibly involved - he remained married to my mother until his death, just shy of their 45th anniversary. I was an only child who never lacked for attention, love, support, or discipline.
To hear my parents, teachers, and other adults who were around at the time tell it, I was always a well-behaved and carefully brought up young woman.
And yet, I have ADHD. It shows up on MRIs, and has been confirmed through extensive testing by several doctors (as I'm also pretty careful with my health). I regularly take a high dosage of Ritalin.
In other words, folks, don't make assumptions about conditions you know nothing about while assuming that the only folks with it are kids who a) won't see what you said, and b) won't call you on your misconceptions and/or deliberate trolling.
Oh, and as for Ritalin "stunt[ing] growth big time" - I'm 5'10. They said the same thing about coffee when I was growing up.
ADHD
posted by kim on 11 May 2011 at 7:00 am
I HATE that my son now in High School has had to take these meds since kindergarten!
He was born at 7 months after my appendix burst and I am told preemie boys are highly likely to be hyperactive and he is.
My problem is that yes he is hyper but respectful (the teachers have always said this also) and behaves beside getting over excited sometimes. When at home and over the summer I don’t give him meds and he is fine somewhat hyper but not overly, I just say a few words to him and he realizes and stops he is a great kid never had a problem with him so I get upset I have to drug him to go to school.
I understand it is easier for the teaches if kids just sit in their chair and stare straight ahead but this is just wrong.
Some kids need meds but why are they drugging so many?
Danny
posted by Daniel on 11 May 2011 at 7:55 am
Thank you Rachel - Folks need to realize that there are a huge number of adults that take these meds for completely legitimate reasons, it's not only kids
Most of you have no idea how important these drugs are
posted by Ryan on 11 May 2011 at 9:28 am
I am a 33 year old who started taking adderall about 5 years ago. Words cannot describe how my life changed for the better. I have been able to master my craft and work consistently on improving, where before I was rather useless.
I am healthy and actually a bit over my ideal weight. I have no trouble sleeping or eating. I exercise on a regular basis and have had no emotional issues whatsoever.
If other individuals do not need these drugs they have no right to keep them from those of us who do. My life would be much less enjoyable if I were to return to my unfocused, exhausted, unmotivated ways.
To the first Ryan
posted by Dave on 11 May 2011 at 10:04 am
I am glad you are so pharmaceutically pious. The view from your high horse must be WONDERFUL.
Newsflash: CBT will do NOTHING for a real case of ADHD in a 9 year old. You can't reason with him/her to just "do what you know is the right thing" while in a classroom setting. I tried fighting medications for years but finally, after exhausting all other options, reluctantly put my child on a medication that I, too, in my ignorance believed was unnecessary.
The difference is night & day now and I am thankful my child can take this medication, though I am looking forward to the day he is mature enough to manage himself without it (I really do hope that day comes). Sure the medications are over prescribed as teachers these days do not want the responsibility of dealing with disruptive children. However, these medications are a necessity for some children and it's been getting ridiculous that I have to drive all over town to find the one pharmacy that got a shipment of this medication this month. It's absurd that we got to this point.
Who Cares
posted by Patricia on 11 May 2011 at 12:44 pm
The drugs work for some people with ADHD and ADD, but not everyone agrees. I took Ritalin for my ADD and it did work until I became a teenager. Learning to just deal with mental problems like ADHD and ADD without medicine is easier my cousin has ADHD and so does two of her kids. She has refused to give them any drug for their ADHD and it works. Good parenting helps out in the long run. Children do not need these drugs to focus on school work, just good learning habits. So who cares if these companies run out.
Info Overload Masks Individual Cases
posted by Susan on 11 May 2011 at 6:47 pm
In this internet age,there's an awesome lot of undigested information. My daughter started on adderall as she went off to college. She changed from being an indifferent, disorganized student to an excellent student. In high school, her intelligence was wasted as she tried to keep herself focused; in college, with the help of a little pill, she shines, ever so much more able to do all that she wants to do. Several times, she's tried to do without the little pills -- but she always comes back, because she prefers the person she is WITH them... We all may have concerns about misdiagnosing or over-medicating children, but when these medications are correctly prescribed, the results are dramatically helpful... Let us preserve the right of individuals, their families and doctors to decide -- these decisions should NEVER be made by teachers... or the government!
Drugs are addictive.
posted by Andrew Ellis on 11 May 2011 at 7:25 pm
I take aspirin when I am in pain. That's it. Any drug can be a benefit to humanity when it is used for the intended purpose. The problem is that the pharmaceutical companies have to sell enough viagra to finance the research into cancer therapies. It is a sick world we live in.
concerning the comment on law enforcement
posted by Dithyramb on 12 May 2011 at 5:48 am
The article pretty clearly states that law enforcement isn't impacting the commercial sale of these drugs. Instead, plenty of raw materials were allowed to the market...those companies that own the products instead can't keep up. Perhaps more companies should be allowed to produce the generic forms of these drugs for the supposed patients.
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Who cares you ask?
posted by DracoDan on 12 May 2011 at 12:57 pm
I care, and I care a lot. While I agree that these are overprescribed for ADD/ADHD, that is not their only use. I have fairly severe narcolepsy and so far Adderall has been the only reliable treatment without extreme side effects. Without this I have no choice but to return to a life where I fall asleep 4-5 times a day uncontrollably and have to resort to large amounts of caffeine just to be able to drive to work. Sadly the prescriptions are first come first serve, what should really happen is that narcoleptic patents get first priority.
If your against medication
posted by Brett on 14 May 2011 at 3:55 am
Anyone judging medication as not helping are showing two things- first the reason it took so long to discover, diagnosis, and treat as a disease because of simple minded judgements lacking the understanding that people are very different inside and can't be forced to change this to be like YOU - second they have little to no depth of knowledge as to how ADHD works and affects a person. Medication changed my life by slowing me down, giving me a fair advantage to learn more clearly (like you)- allowing an understanding of myself and other people. A place I wouldn't have reached with your judgements and without medicine. If I die tomorrow from my medication I'm happy I took it and the life I could lead by its inception.
bipolar adult
posted by susan on 01 Jun 2011 at 3:06 am
I am bipolar and now an adult...sometimes certain medications in one person are effective while in another may not be...it took a very long time to get mine right...my wish is that well meaning Americans seemingly stating facts in their opinions would be able to understand what its like to be mentally disabled...one cannot see until he opens his eyes...
RN
posted by M Lancaster on 11 July 2011 at 7:23 am
I really want to know if you or Ryan have raised a child with this disorder? I have ADD & have raised a son & a daughter with ADHD. They both started Ritalin in the 2nd grade. My daughter is now 20 and my son 16. If you have not raised a child with ADD or ADHD, then go complain somewhere else about something else.....you don't have a clue. BTW Jack, my husband & I have been married for 32 years, he's home with the kids every night...also just so you will know, my daughter is 6 ft tall and my son is 6'4", who woulda thought......
Where is the science
posted by Maddy on 22 July 2011 at 3:18 pm
Where is the data from that supports your opinion? There actually is a lot of research supporting that ADHD is a real chronic neurobehavioral disorder and not a result of bad parents, bad kids or bad teachers. This opinion is equivalent to how people used to say menstrual cramps were all in the mind and now we recognize this is completely wrong. If someone's child had diabetes most find it easier to understand that behavior and diet changes can't always be the answer. medication is often needed to treat the disorder so the child and family can have the best quality of life possible. Stimulants refer to stimulating the PFC that is often under active in ADHD (which is supported by brain scans.)
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