Extracts from the "Other" Journals relating to Children, Youth and
Families
in the fields of health, substance abuse, education, psychology, science
...
April 2008
British study finds third of girls harm selves
A survey conducted for a mental health provider finds that one-third of girls from 11- to 19-years-old in the United Kingdom have harmed themselves.
Depression is very common among teens, causing them to cut, burn, punch or overdose their selves with drugs. Dr. David Kingsley, a consulting psychiatrist at Cheadle Royal Hospital, said that medical practitioners felt that the problem was getting worse.
He said in a statement to BBC News that, "One in three girls is an extraordinary figure - I was stunned by it. A study recently suggested three biggest causes were family problems, problems with friends and problems at school." He added that parents and educators should be on guard with youngsters who seem to be withdrawn. There are times when people tend to keep problems to themselves because they are afraid of receiving negative feedback from others.
Mental health experts cautioned that self-harm may indicate suicidal tendencies, bullying, sexual exploitation and drug and alcohol use. They requested that the issue be addressed in school lessons.
Sarah Brennan, the acting chief executive of Young Minds, said that parents usually feel disheartened when they find out that their kids are inflicting self-harm. She said it is important to develop an increased awareness in parents and workers who deal with young people so that they may be able to handle the situation well.
Catherine Mariano-Gaces
29 April 2008
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010789152
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USA
Quarter of kids don't meet vaccine schedule
More than a quarter of American children are not meeting the U.S. government's recommendations for childhood vaccinations, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers said on Tuesday. Their report went beyond the government's typical evaluation of whether children are getting the recommended number of doses of various vaccines and examined whether they were getting them at the right time.
Looking at children between 18 months and their 3rd birthday, the CDC researchers found that 28 percent did not meet vaccination recommendations. The results were based on a 2005 government survey involving 17,563 U.S. children in that age group. Missed doses accounted for about two-thirds of those not in compliance. The rest got them at the wrong age or too soon after a previous dose to be considered completely effective.
Using the usual method of examining only whether children got the right number of doses, 81 percent of the children met government recommendations, the CDC said.
"We didn't look specifically at the implications on potential disease outbreaks. But we do know that doses that are given too early or too close together are not as effective as doses that are given the proper spacing and the proper age," said Elizabeth Luman of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Luman, who led the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, said the United States has one of the best childhood vaccination records in the world, with fewer than 1 percent of parents not having their children vaccinated at all. "For the vast majority of parents, they're bringing their children to get vaccinated. The schedule is very complex and it requires a lot of visits to vaccination providers at specific times. And for parents who are busy, that can be really logistically difficult," Luman said in a telephone interview.
The CDC recommends a number of vaccines to protect children against diseases like measles, polio, mumps, chicken pox and several others. Some require multiple doses.
Will Dunham
29 April 2008
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Unhappiness among UK teens surprisingly high
According to an opinion poll published by The Children's Society, 27% of UK teenagers say they "often feel depressed". The poll, part of the Good Childhood Inquiry revealed that just 9% of adult respondents felt children are happier today than when they were growing up. The poll was carried out by the GfK NOP and commissioned by The Children's Society. Evidence was gathered from members of the public as well as health care professionals, with some surprising data about children's mental health and well-being.
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A Children's Society survey of 8,000 14-16 year olds found that 27% of young people agreed with this statement "I often feel depressed".
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A CBBC* Newsround survey of 462 children revealed that 78% of them said they felt fine, good or really good about their health, while 22% said they felt bad or really bad.
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A CBBC Newsround survey of 664 children found that 70% of them said they diet some or all of the time. The same survey found that a large percentage of children feel under pressure to look good.
(* CBBC = Children's BBC)
A sizeable number of children feel it is important to be free of pressure, stress and worry. The children linked pressure to school, family expectations, bullying, peer pressure/influence, and their looks.
When asked what had the most negative impact on children's well-being, adults rated family breakdown and conflict (29%) and peer pressure (23%) highly.
Professor Stephen Scott, Institute of Psychiatry, an Inquiry Panel member, said "Many respondents to the inquiry shared the belief that well being depends on good relationships, especially within the family; on a sense of purpose and on freedom. To achieve this, child mental health and well being must be everybody's business. Support for parents is crucial; schooling has a key part to play; and providing the effective treatments now available for children with mental health problems takes time, skill and resources."
Bob Reitemeier, CEO, The Children's Society, said "There is a growing recognition of the true cost of neglecting children's mental health and well being. Too often mental health and well being have been dismissed as being of little importance but there is now an understanding that if we want to give children a better childhood these matters must be addressed. We now need to translate this growing concern into action and investment in the necessary support services."
66% of the GfK NOP* respondents said that such indoor activities as computer games and watching TV are making children less physically active. 88% felt children need more education about following a healthy diet. 95% agreed that physical health has an important impact on mental health.
(* GfK NOP = a leading market research organisation)
Medical News Today
24 April 2008
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/105245.php
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Group urges heart test before kids get ADHD drugs
Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder should get their hearts checked before starting treatment with Ritalin or other stimulant drugs, experts recommended on Monday.
The American Heart Association called for these children to undergo an electrocardiogram, a test that detects and records the heart's electrical activity, before taking such drugs. The group said it is not clear that these medications increase a child's risk of sudden cardiac death, but issued the new recommendations out of an abundance of caution.
"There's been concern that these drugs might be associated in a very small number of individuals' sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death," said Dr. Victoria Vetter of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, who led the panel that drafted the recommendations. "There's no registry in the country to determine how many young people are dying from sudden cardiac arrest and what they might have causing that -- and similarly how many of those who die might be on these medications. So there's no causal information," Vetter added in a telephone interview.
Ritalin, Novartis AG's brand name for the generic drug methylphenidate, is a central nervous system stimulant prescribed to calm and focus children with ADHD, a condition marked by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. ADHD appears to be more common in children with heart conditions, the American Heart Association said in the recommendations, published in its journal Circulation.
The group said U.S. Food and Drug Association data showed that between 1999 and 2004, 19 children taking ADHD drugs died suddenly and 26 children had cardiovascular events such as strokes, cardiac arrests and heart palpitations. Millions of U.S. children are taking ADHD drugs.
Research has indicated that stimulants like Ritalin can raise the heart rate and blood pressure. While these side effects are unimportant for most children with ADHD, they can be relevant for those with a heart condition, the American Heart Association said. Some heart conditions can raise the risk for sudden cardiac death, which can happen when heart rhythm becomes erratic.
The association's recommendations call for a child to get an electrocardiogram before starting ADHD stimulant medications because the test may identify conditions like heart rhythm abnormalities that can trigger sudden cardiac death. "It won't pick up every one. There will be some false positives. But it's a relatively inexpensive and simple test that doesn't hurt the children in any way and it will let us identify some of these children and know that they have heart conditions," Vetter said. We particularly don't want to scare people or to alarm them," Vetter said.
The group also urged doctors to evaluate the heart health of children already taking ADHD medications if they were not evaluated before they began treatment. If the electrocardiogram turns up trouble, that does not necessarily mean the child should not get ADHD medications, Vetter said. "We would monitor those children more carefully -- start them on lower doses of drugs and see how they do," she said.
Two U.S. health agencies said last year they
were launching a two-year assessment of potential heart risks from ADHD
drugs.
Will Dunham
21 April 2008
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UK REPORT
Selfishness and greed replace war and slavery as social evils, claims report
Selfishness, greed and family breakdown are among the modern-day "social evils", according to a report published today. Society has lost its "moral compass", with government, the media, big business and religion sharing the responsibility, the consultation by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found.
In 1904, the founder of the social policy charity identified poverty, war, slavery, intemperance, the opium trade, impurity and gambling as the "great scourges of humanity".
Today's top 10 evils, identified after a consultation with more than 3,500 people, were mostly linked to the breakdown of community and family, and in some cases a matter of dispute. They were: the decline of community, individualism, consumerism and greed, a decline of values, the decline of the family, young people as both victims and perpetrators, drugs and alcohol, poverty and inequality, immigration and responses to it, and crime and violence.
The report concluded that people felt "a strong sense of unease" about some of the changes shaping British society. It said: "People are concerned about the way our society has become more individualistic, greedy and selfish, seemingly at a cost to our sense of community. The focus on greed as an issue reflects concern about the growing gulf between the rich and poor.
"Connected to all of these issues was the perception that we no longer share a set of common values and that we have lost our 'moral compass'." Many of the evils were inter-linked, with the decline of community connected to increasing isolation but also individualism, with relationships "eclipsed by an excessive desire for consumer goods".
The misuse of drugs and alcohol was identified as both a cause and consequence of many other social problems, including family breakdown and poverty. There were conflicting responses over the role of family, with criticism for "bad parents" as well as sympathy for those doing their best in difficult circumstances, and there were different views on the importance of having both a mother and a father.
The issue of immigration provoked a range of responses, with some respondents feeling pressure was being put on resources and others calling for tolerance. The report said the Government was seen as being "out of touch with the real issues people face" and "ineffective at tackling social problems". The media were criticised for propagating negative and damaging attitudes, while religion was identified as a "cause of conflict and confusion". Big business was blamed for "fuelling inequality and consumerism".
Julia Unwin, director of the JRF, said: "This consultation will help the Foundation to further Joseph Rowntree's mission: to search, demonstrate and influence by undertaking programmes of work on key social policy issues, and through our practical housing and care work. As well as helping to inform our own work, we hope that the views expressed will influence the work of other organisations seeking to address social ills."
Joe Sinclair
20 April 2008
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/uk/Selfishness-and-greed-replace-war.4000849.jp
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Provocative new book challenges today’s childrearing practices, earns critical praise
In her latest book, Ships Without A Shore: America’s Undernurtured Children, Anne R. Pierce submits that today’s childrearing trends may just spell the death of childhood—the crucial stage in human development. Pierce takes a hard look at the emerging data on the effects of day care and the hyper-structuring of children’s lives with endless activities. She analyzes our shifting moral-philosophical priorities and exposes the fractured condition of our families.
Recently published by Transaction, Ships Without A Shore is already receiving critical praise:
“This is an extremely important book on the challenges of child development at our current technological crossroads at which media is able to deliver incredible ‘programming’ to our youth to potentially disastrous effect.” —James E. Swain MD, PhD, FRCPC, the Child Study Center at Yale. “
Anne Pierce presents an articulate, no-holds-barred indictment of current child-rearing practices. Read this book, and you will have plenty to talk—and to think—about!” —Influential author and educational psychologist Jane M. Healy
“Thoughtful parents will find Anne Pierce’s
Ships Without A Shore a provocative, even disturbing book. Pierce
talks unfashionably and compellingly about children’s natural needs for
stable parental love and care and for innocence protected from
corruption.” —Nathan Tarcov, the Committee on Social Thought at the
University of Chicago
16 April 2008
This book is available in our bookstore. Click on flag.
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SCOTLAND
New NHS standards tackle high levels of sexually transmitted infections in Scotland
HIV and sexual health charity, Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland, has welcomed the publication of new standards that NHS sexual health services in Scotland must adhere to. The standards, published by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS), aim to improve sexual health and reduce rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Scotland, which are currently at record levels.
The standards set out a wide range of factors needed to provide good quality services. These include: publicising emergency contraception more widely and ensuring young people have access to it, increasing the number of women using long acting methods of contraception such as implants and injections, and guaranteeing that people contacting sexual health clinics are seen quickly.
Catherine Murphy, Policy Officer at Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland said "We need to make sure that clinics and drop-in services are up to the job of dealing with increases in STIs, so these targets are great news. To get people through the doors for testing and check-ups we have to guarantee that they will get a good service; be seen quickly, treated respectfully and in confidence."
One area that the standards aims to improve significantly is chlamydia testing. There has been a 250% increase in diagnoses in the last 10 years; with nearly 18,000 people infected in 2007. Targets for health boards to increase chlamydia testing will mean some services in Scotland have to significantly increase the amount of chlamydia testing they do.
Catherine continues "Although these improvements are essential, clinical services alone won't be enough turn the tide of STI diagnoses in Scotland. We need to do more to educate people about safer sex and to develop a culture that is more open and comfortable dealing with these issues. Parents, schools, local authorities and the voluntary sector all have a role to play in improving Scotland's sexual health."
14 April 2008
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/103896.php
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Abstinence-only programs reject education and knowledge
What’s left for kids when you take the education out of “sex education?” Yes, indeed: sex.
OK, the joke is more ironic than funny. But there isn’t much humor in the fact that approximately 170 million taxpayer dollars are lavished on abstinence-only programs by the federal government each year – programs, as studies now show, whose results compare poorly to those of comprehensive sex education.
Over the years, the abstinence-only mantra has been that teaching kids about sex encourages early sexual activity. However, speaking to Reuters Health last month. Pamela K. Kohler, a researcher with the Center for AIDS and STD at the University of Washington, Seattle, said not only did comprehensive sex education not increase the probability teens would contract STDs, it also didn’t increase the probability they would have sex. In addition, she said, “The bottom line is that there is strong evidence that comprehensive sex education is more effective than abstinence-only at preventing teen pregnancies.”
The actual study findings as published in this April’s Journal of Adolescent Health were that students who received comprehensive sex education were “50 percent less likely to become pregnant than those who received abstinence-only education,” and “60 percent less likely to become pregnant than those who received no sex education at all.”
Knowledge, it seems, is a good thing. But teaching teenagers about sex also is a political hot potato. As with so many Bush administration pet policies, abstinence-only is hardwired to ideology. Unfortunately, when reality proves ideology wrong, there’s no move to change policy.
Be clear: Encouraging abstinence is not the problem; rather, it is withholding or misrepresenting important factual information young people should be taught about sex that makes the abstinence-only policy morally questionable. Yes, teaching abstinence is an important facet of comprehensive sex education, as is teaching healthy body image and self-esteem, healthy interpersonal attitudes and boundaries in relationships, healthy methods of communication and decision-making skills. But it isn’t real sex education unless medically accurate information about reproduction, reproductive health, condom use, birth control and sexually transmitted diseases is included. That’s where abstinence-only programs fail.
As one local public health professional told me, “Kids know whether somebody’s telling them the whole story. They don’t trust people who don’t tell them the truth.”
Culturally, we Americans have a problem with sex. When it comes to entertainment and advertising, we’re obsessed with it, and yet, we pretend our children are still in the world where Lucy and Ricky Ricardo have a quick goodnight kiss before climbing into twin beds in their Adam’s apple-to-ankle pajamas. (TV’s married couples still are pretty tame, but they’re the only ones. For instance, in hospital shows, treating patients is secondary to all the main characters ducking into closets to have sex. Frankly, I’d like to see a program like the “Daily Show” or the “Colbert Report” that satirizes the many ways “sex sells” in entertainment and advertising. But that’s another topic.)
Underscoring the need for better sex education, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the 2006 STD surveillance report showing “that one in four young women ages 14 to 19 was infected with a sexually transmitted disease”: human papillomavirus (HPV), Chlamydia, trichomoniasis or genital herpes. The American Cancer Society also reported that “more than 50 percent” of college-age women were found to have acquired an HPV infection within four years of first having sex.
Those statistics are alarming, to say the least, and although the HPV vaccine is extremely promising, it isn’t the whole answer for young people. At a stage of life when rebellion and risky behaviors are not unusual, kids can’t be scared into making good decisions. They are best served by a holistic approach to sexuality; they are best served by knowledge.
Jane Ahlin
13 April 2008
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Mumps found to have made alarming comeback in U.S.
Mumps made an alarming comeback in the United States in 2006 and may take years to completely eradicate, federal health experts reported on Wednesday. The outbreak of the viral disease came despite the widespread use of a second dose of a mumps vaccine, produced by Merck, beginning in 1990.
Eighty-four percent of the people between the ages of 18 and 24 who became ill in the outbreak had received the second recommended dose, the researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. "A more effective mumps vaccine or changes in vaccine policy may be needed to avert future outbreaks and achieve the elimination of mumps," Gustavo Dayan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and colleagues wrote.
There were no deaths from the virus, which can be as mild as a fever and swollen glands, or severe enough to cause deafness, testicular inflammation and encephalitis. But there were 6,584 cases nationwide and 85 hospitalizations, most concentrated in eight midwestern states and on college campuses.
"It would have been tens of thousands of cases if we didn't have the coverage," said Jane Seward, deputy director of the CDC's division of viral diseases. The U.S. has a goal of eliminating the disease by 2010, but doctors consider a disease eliminated if there are no new home-grown cases over a 12-month period, Seward said in a telephone interview.
Thus, the goal might be achievable. But permanently banishing the disease is unlikely because 43 percent of nations do not vaccinate against the disease. "Until the globe gets rid of their disease, we're at risk for importation and will continue to have outbreaks," Seward said.
A double dose of the vaccine is supposed to be 88 to 95 percent effective.
"The 2006 outbreak was the first account of a large-scale mumps epidemic characterized by two-dose vaccine failure," Dayan's team wrote. "Although there was no single explanation for the outbreak, multiple factors may have contributed, including waning immunity, high population density and contact rates in colleges, and incomplete vaccine-induced immunity to wild virus."
Even countries that protect their children against mumps do not give two doses or have not been doing it for as long as the United States, Seward said. That is one reason why there was an outbreak of more than 70,000 cases in Britain from 2004 to 2006, even though the population is one-fifth the size of the U.S. population.
Some advocacy groups have also expressed fears about the safety of the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, with some parents refusing to get their children vaccinated, officials say. Health experts say these fears are ungrounded and say parents who do not vaccinate their children put them at risk and also children too young to have been vaccinated or with condition that prevent vaccination.
Gene Emery
10 April 2008
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GW cannabis drug misses statistical significance
Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals said on Tuesday its pioneering cannabis-based medicine had failed to reach statistical significance in a final stage trial to treat neuropathic pain in multiple sclerosis patients. GW said the drug, Sativex, had a very high patient response rate but that the results narrowly failed to reach statistical significance due to an unexpectedly large placebo response.
"It is frustrating that the extent of the
placebo response has narrowly prevented the benefits seen on Sativex
translating into a statistically significant outcome," Stephen Wright,
GW's research and development director, said in a statement. GW's shares
were trading 23 percent lower by 3:45 a.m. EDT.
A GW spokesman said it will have to carry out another study into
neuropathic pain. "What this means is we are not able to speed things
up," he said.
KBC analyst Paul Cuddon said it was "extremely disappointing" GW could not replicate the highly significant reduction in pain achieved in a previous trial which the company attributed to a large response in the placebo group. "While valid, this indicates that the effect of Sativex is marginal, and we retain our doubts as to whether the product will ever prove a commercial success in any of the indications," Cuddon wrote in a research note.
The study is one of three phase III trials for Sativex taking place this year.
GM said its study into ms spasticity, requested by the UK regulator, was on track to report later this year. It also has a trial into cancer pain running in the United States.
Jonathan Saul
8 April 2008
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UVIC REPORT
Parents, peers drive youth behaviour
Young people who watch their parents or peers drive after drinking or smoking pot are more likely to do the same, according to a new University of Victoria report. "We tell them not to drink and drive, and kids look around and say 'Everyone drinks and drives,'" said UVic psychologist Bonnie Leadbeater, co-author of an addiction research report entitled How Much Can You Drink Before Driving?
"We take this abstinence-only approach to drinking and driving, instead of giving them some knowledge that would help them make more informed decisions," she said.
In a study of 2,594 male and female students with an average age of 16 in rural and urban areas of Vancouver Island, 53 per cent reported being a passenger in a car with an adult who drove under the influence of alcohol, and 27 per cent had been in the same situation with a peer. Rural youth were more likely than urban ones to get in a car with an intoxicated driver. The report, done by UVic's Centre for Youth and Society and funded in part by the Vancouver Island Health Authority, also showed 24 per cent of Vancouver Island youth had been in a car with an adult who had smoked pot, and 33 per cent had been in the same situation with a peer.
"It's important that adults have and articulate their own rules for drinking and driving and understand that their children are learning from their behaviour," Leadbeater said. "And kids also have to learn to say no to getting in a vehicle with people who are drinking and driving." Past research shows if one youth refuses to get in a car with a presumably intoxicated driver, the rest will follow. But if a youth has already been in a car with an adult who has been drinking and has learned to think it's acceptable, that same youth is more likely to hop in a car with a friend who had been drinking despite what their parents might tell them.
Campaigns telling youth not to drink and drive and B.C.'s restricted-licence program for young drivers are helping to reduce the number of young people dying in car crashes, but it remains the No. 1 leading cause of death in adolescents aged 15-24. Unfortunately, around the same age that youth graduate from a restricted licence to an open driver's licence, they also become of a legal age to drink, Leadbeater said. At that point they are often guided by their parents' and peers' fuzzy rules around when it's acceptable to drink and drive.
"Kids need to know more about how alcohol works, how it impairs your performance and how little or how much you need to be intoxicated," Leadbeater said.
Cindy E. Harnett,
6 April 2008
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Sense of belonging a key to suicide prevention
The rate of suicide among young people is triple what it was 50 years ago, and while it remains exceedingly rare for college students to kill themselves, it is always a tragedy -- and always preventable, according to a New York psychiatrist and authority on suicide.
"I don't think people should panic that this is an epidemic," Dr. David Kahn, who is vice chair for clinical affairs at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and on staff at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, told Reuters Health. In fact, Kahn noted in an interview, young people in college are actually less likely to kill themselves than their peers who aren't attending college. Nevertheless, he added, depression and suicidal thoughts are common among college kids, and must be addressed. About half of young people report experiencing depression severe enough to interfere with their functioning at least one point during their college years, while 1 in 10 report having suicidal thoughts.
The college years are a particularly risky time for several reasons, Kahn pointed out. For one, many young people are away from home, parents and old friends for the first time in their lives. These years are also a key time for experimenting with drugs and alcohol. And finally, the late teens and early 20s are the time when serious psychiatric illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia first appear.
"Certain major mood disorders often begin precisely when people are going off to college," Kahn explained. "Then of course there's the stress of just being in college." Stress won't in itself drive a person to kill himself, he added, but difficulty managing that stress is related to suicide. So one key element of helping to prevent suicide is to help young people learn to manage stress effectively, Kahn said. Helping people who feel isolated to connect or reconnect with others is also important, he added. "Connection and a feeling of social belonging is I think the most important initial step in preventing suicide," Kahn said. "Once the person feels that sense of trust in belong to the community, they may be more receptive to suggestions that they seek help, if they haven't sought it already."
Nearly all colleges and universities in the US now have suicide prevention programs in place, he added. Students, parents and other college community members who want more information on warning signs of suicide and prevention strategies can get in touch with the program at their institution. They can also look to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (http://www.afsp.org), the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org) and the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/suicideprevention/fivews.asp) for information.
Finally, anyone who has suicidal thoughts can get help 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by calling the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
"Students have to know that it's a sign of strength, not of weakness, to reach out and get help," Kahn said.
Anne Harding
2 April 2008
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ADHD drugs seen as not linked to future drug abuse
Using stimulants like Ritalin to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, particularly younger ones, does not seem to boost the risk of later substance abuse, researchers said on Tuesday.
There has been a debate over whether such medications are the best way to treat ADHD, a condition marked by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior that appears more often in boys than girls. Some experts have worried these drugs could make children more prone to substance abuse later on.
Two teams of researchers who examined the issue in studies published in American Journal of Psychiatry said their findings should offer some reassurance about using these stimulants. A team led by Salvatore Mannuzza of New York University followed for 17 years a group of 176 young men who had been prescribed Ritalin for ADHD as boys. Those who began taking Ritalin at ages 6 or 7 had essentially the same rate of drug abuse as young adults -- 27 percent -- as a group of young men who did not have ADHD and did not take Ritalin -- 29 percent.
Those with ADHD who started taking Ritalin at a slightly older age -- 8 through 12 -- did have a higher rate of future drug abuse -- 44 percent, the study found.
Mannuzza said it was premature to conclude it was the Ritalin, rather than the mere fact of having a condition like ADHD, that increased their likelihood of later drug abuse. He said that question could be better answered by comparing children with ADHD treated with the medication starting at ages 8 to 12 with others with ADHD who were not treated with medication at all, to see if those groups had differing rates of drug abuse as adults. "You can't conclude that late-treated cases will develop substance abuse even though that's what our findings seem to suggest," Mannuzza said.
Another team led by Dr. Joseph Biederman of Massachusetts General Hospital tracked for 10 years another group of boys with ADHD, some of whom were treated with stimulant medications and some not. Those treated with medications had neither an increased nor decreased risk for subsequent drug or alcohol abuse compared to those not given drugs for their ADHD.
"Considering that ADHD affects 5 to 10 percent of children worldwide, and addictions are worldwide problems as well, I think the fact that these drugs do not have an adverse effect in increasing those risks is very important information for families and doctors taking care of children with ADHD," Biederman said in a telephone interview.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health, which
helped fund the studies, estimates that between 3 and 5 percent of
children have ADHD.
Will Dunham
31 March 2008
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