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What You Should Know About Ritalin

Why your child doesn’t have ADHD and why you shouldn’t give him or her Ritalin (and similar drugs).

WARNING:

“When trying to withdraw from many psychiatric drugs (this includes Ritalin and other drugs given to children diagnosed with ADHD), patients can develop serious and even life threatening emotional and physical reactions. In short, it is not only dangerous to start taking psychiatric drugs but also can be hazardous to stop taking them. Therefore, withdrawal from psychiatric drugs should be done under medical and clinical supervision.”

Dr. Peter Breggin, psychiatrist, from his book Talking Back to Prozac

ADHD (Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder)


“In 1987, ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ (ADHD) was literally voted into existence by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and enshrined in the DSM-III-R (third edition-revised). Within one year, 500,000 children in the U.S. alone were diagnosed with this affliction created by a vote - a show of hands.”
from the booklet Psychiatry - Betraying and Drugging Children published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights

“Through these criteria, describing common, everyday behavior of children, the rhetoric of science transforms them into what are purported to be objective symptoms of mental disorder. On closer inspection, however, there is little that is objective about the diagnostic criteria.”

from The Selling of DSM: The Rhetoric of Science
In Psychiatry by S. Kirk and H. Kutchins

“According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), a child has (ADHD) symptoms - which must appear before age 7 - if she is easily distracted, often interrupts, and fidgets or squirms. Sounds like your basic kid.”

Kate Murphy, journalist, Business Week (1997)

“I was shocked when I first learned the criterion used to rationalize putting a child on Ritalin. There are no laboratory tests, no brain scans, no X-rays, no measurements, nothing even vaguely scientific, to demonstrate the existence of a medical disease that may need to be treated with a drug.”

Dr. Erwin Gemmer, from his taped lecture Conspiracy Against Our Children

“Indeed, despite the highly successful efforts by the APA to define ADD as a well-established disorder of the brain, three decades of medical science have yet to produce any substantive evidence to support such a claim.”

Richard DeGrandpre, Ph.D.
from his book Ritalin Nation

“I wrote to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to Ciba-Geigy (manufacturer of Ritalin), to Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders (CH.A.D.D.) and four times to leading ADHD researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health, requesting that they direct me to one or a few articles in the peer-reviewed, scientific literature that constitutes proof of a physical or chemical abnormality in ADHD, thus making it a ‘disease’. I have yet to receive anything which would constitute proof of an abnormality - one that could be tested for patient by patient - one proving that we are not drugging entirely normal children.”

Neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman, M.D. from the booklet Psychiatry - Betraying and Drugging Children published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights

“(there are) no laboratory tests that have been established as diagnostic (for ADHD).”

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)

“As yet, no distinctive pathophysiology (physical disease) for the disorder (ADHD) has been delineated.”

Paul Leber, M.D. with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

“We are… unaware that ADHD has been validated as a biological/organic syndrome or disease.”

Gene Haislip of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

“The driving force behind the over-diagnosis (of ADHD) is a system that is out of control. Teachers want compliant, well-behaved children. Parents eager to see children succeed take them to mental health professionals who are quick to diagnose ADHD and seek drug treatment. Under an insurance system that favors drugs over therapy, ADHD is an easy label to apply to undesired behavior; drugs are a quick fix. …

Children who are creative, having a different learning style or are oppositional, angry, or depressive all have been diagnosed as having ADHD. Many of these problems can be found only by talking with patients at length.”

Sharon Collins, pediatrician (1997)

“There’s no question in my mind that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, in many Contra Costa (California) schools, would be carrying the diagnoses of ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and put on at least one medication, if not two.”

Lawrence Diller, pediatrician

“There’s either a strange plague of hyperactivity in the U.S., or we’ve got a lot of folks prescribing Ritalin as a psychopharmacological nanny.”
Arthur Caplan, director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

“It’s well known among research of the gifted, talented, and creative that these individuals exhibit greater intensity and increased levels of emotional, imaginational, intellectual, sensual and psychomotor excitability and that this is a normal pattern of development.

These characteristics, however, are frequently perceived by psychotherapists and others as evidence of a mental disturbance… ADHD and ADD are a few of the diagnostic labels mistakenly used.”

Lynne Azepeitia and Mary Rocamora (February 1997), from Misdiagnosis of the Gifted, in the newsletter of the National Association for the Fostering of Intelligence

“Sadly, it is often the more creative and enthusiastic kids who are slapped with a mental disorder label. Even Albert Einstein, if he had been born in the last decade or so, would have perfectly fit the profile of someone having attention deficit and supposedly needing Ritalin. He didn’t speak until he was 7; his teacher described him as mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift in his foolish dreams. You can rest assured that today there would be an all-out effort to have him medicated; and he certainly wouldn’t have been alone. In school, Thomas Edison’s thoughts often wandered and his body was perpetually moving in his seat. His teacher said he was unruly and too stupid to learn anything…Walt Disney had several of the characteristics used to diagnose ADHD, as did Alexander Graham Bell, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and the Wright Brothers. The list goes on…every one of these great minds and thousands of others like them would probably have been labeled with a mental disorder and put on Ritalin if they had gone to grade school today…What about our children? Do we want to stunt their initiative and creativity by drugging them? Wouldn’t it be wiser instead to find out what is really stopping each of these young people from doing their very best in school?”

Dr. Erwin Gemmer, from his taped lecture Conspiracy Against Our Children

“A boy was brought to the home, diagnosed as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). The treating psychologist said that we wouldn’t want to take him. So, I interviewed him. As he supposedly had ADD, I asked him some basic questions: ‘What’s the longest time you’ve ever talked to a girl on the phone?’ ‘Three to five hours,’ he replied. ‘Do you remember what she said?’ He could remember it all. I asked how long he could play a Nintendo (video) game. He told me he’d played it eight hours straight. What about books? Could he read? He said he read books from beginning to end - the ones he liked reading. He’d also played full games of basketball and football. So it appeared to me that he could pay attention to anything that he was interested in.”

Fred Shaw, Jr., owner and manager of several California group homes for boys as an alternative to prison.

“It is known that if a child doesn’t understand something he or she is being taught, the child can begin to fidget and cease to pay attention. If the teacher fails to notice this and carries on past the misunderstanding without clearing it up with the child, the child’s behavior will deteriorate. The child then is accused of ‘not paying attention’ or in psychiatric psycho-babble, is said to have ‘an attention deficit.’ Thus the child ends up being labeled as having one of the new ‘mental illnesses.’”

“How Psychiatry Is Making Drug Addicts Out of School Children,” by Dennis H. Clarke

“I became an expert in treating hyperactive children with stimulant drugs. Then I discovered that many children developed their unacceptable behavior because of the food they were eating. Along the way I found that I could stop allergies, lift depression, control some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, lower blood pressure if elevated, assuage asthma, control insomnia, and stop addiction and a great deal of criminal behavior. All with few or no drugs.”

Dr. Lendon Smith
Oregon pediatrician

“Possible side effects of Ritalin: chronic rash, stunted growth, weakened immunity, anorexia, anemia, depression, anxiety, insomnia, withdrawal. Possible side effects of natural therapies: emotional stability, peace of mind, strengthened immunity, peaceful sleep, clarity of thought, ability to focus, more patient, enjoy life more, more loving.”

ADD - The Natural Approach by Nina Anderson and Howard Peiper

“Marty entered third grade, a scrawny brown-haired boy with a quizzical look and a feverish imagination. He annoyed fellow students by following them, pad and pen in hand, jotting down their every word. …He lead a class strike over a math assignment, persuading 25 other kids to repeatedly shout, ‘No pay, no work!’ …(Marty) could drive (his mother) to distraction as well. He had a habit of waking her up in the middle of the night to share his latest tall tale.

…Marty was repeatedly diagnosed as ADHD by teachers and medical professionals who pressured his parents to medicate him with Ritalin. …When Marty’s mother finally gave in to drugging him, she couldn’t bear the changes that she witnessed: ‘He wasn’t there. He did everything he was supposed to do. But his personality was gone.’ She missed him.

Marty’s mom stopped the medication and recommitted herself to doing everything in her power to help her son without drugging him. She went to his classes to help him learn discipline, she met with his teachers, she encouraged the school to create more interesting assignments for him, she resolved conflicts with her husband about how to raise him, and she made necessary changes in herself to deal better with her son’s lack of self-control.

Now Marty is having a fine year in the 11th grade, still as energetic as ever, getting good grades in courses that interest him, writing screenplays as a hobby, working 20 hours a week at a Pizza Hut, and getting himself to school on time.
…Fortunately, his mother was willing to go to great lengths to help him. Extraordinary children can make extraordinary demands on their parents - but the rewards can be extraordinary as well.”

Dr. Peter Breggin, from his book Talking
Back To Ritalin

“…As a youngster, Eric (son of the author) was relentlessly active, demanding, and loud. He threw wild tantrums as a toddler and didn’t sleep through the night until he was nearly 3. With age he became increasingly oppositional and impulsive…
When Eric started school the problems quickly compounded. By the third grade he was reading well below grade level and had become a major behavioral problem. He could not play games without losing his temper (unless everything was going his way) and often snapped at his teachers when reprimanded. In class he was talkative and generally inattentive…

In short, at 9 years of age Eric exhibited every symptom now associated with not only attention deficit disorder (ADD) but also pronounced learning disabilities.
Two years later Eric was reading above grade level, making all but straight A’s, and his behavior - while not completely turned around - was manageable. During that two years he did not receive any medication, was enrolled in no special programs in school, and received no tutoring…

What happened? First, our family made the transition from being child-centered to being marriage-centered. From that nuclear position we were able to take control of a situation that had been spinning out of control. Second we assigned nearly all of the day-to-day housework to Eric and his younger sister Amy. Every day Cinderella and Cinderfella did such things as wash floors, clean bathrooms, and vacuum. Their chores, although considerable, were arranged such that neither child worked more than about one hour a day. Lastly, we banished the television set from our home and lived without the idiot box for 4 years.

In short, Willie and I began rearing our children much as we ourselves had been reared. And everything changed, most notably Eric. Our story, mind you, is not all that unique. In the course of doing talks and workshops around the country I collected a fair number of similar “testimonials” from parents who’ve effected comparable turnarounds with their children…

Sometimes when I tell this story, someone will scoffingly contend that the brevity of Eric’s turnaround says he really didn’t have ADD. My answer to that is if Eric didn’t really have ADD then maybe there aren’t any children that have it.”

Living with Attention Deficit, article by psychologist John Rosemond

“Had the vast majority of these children (labeled ADHD) learned to read properly utilizing phonics, they would never have been labeled as having ADHD or any other ‘learning disorder’.”

Neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman, M.D. from the booklet Psychiatry - Betraying and Drugging Children published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights


“Some ‘ADHD children’ are especially creative or energetic and cannot bear the confines of their classrooms or homes. A few are physically ill or injured. Some lack the intellectual tools to cope with ordinary classrooms. Others are emotionally traumatized or disturbed. A number need more time to grow up. Some need more rational and consistent discipline but others have undergone too much harsh discipline. Some have had their whims over-indulged by their parents but others haven’t received enough unconditional love. Nearly all of them - like most children in America - could benefit from more individual time with their parents, especially their fathers who are frequently uninvolved with them.

Knowing that a child fits perfectly into the category called ADHD tells us little or nothing about the child’s mental or physical state, or about the child’s situation at home or in school. It tells us very little, if anything, about the child’s unique needs. It takes time and effort to identify a child’s special needs, and even more time, effort, and patience to respond to them.”

Dr. Peter Breggin, from his book Talking Back To Ritalin

Ritalin and similar drugs

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has established 5 schedules (or classes) of controlled substances. Random House Dictionary defines a controlled substance as, “any of a category of behavior-altering or addictive drugs, as heroin or cocaine, whose possession or use are restricted by law.” Drugs in Class I (or Schedule I) have the highest potential for abuse and dependence and, “typically, the only use for these substances are for research purposes. Examples include LSD and heroin.” Class II (Schedule II) includes drugs, “that have the highest abuse and dependence potential for drugs with medicinal purposes. Examples include analgesics (drugs used to relieve pain) like morphine and Demerol.” The above quotes are from The Essential Guide to Prescription Drugs, by Drs. Rybacki and Long. As the authors also point out, the DEA has classified Ritalin as a Class II drug.

“Stimulants are the drugs most frequently prescribed for ADHD in the hope of controlling behaviors described as hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention. With their chemical names in parentheses, the drugs include:

· Ritalin (methylphenidate)
· Dexedrine and DextroStat (dextroamphetamine or d-amphetamine)
· Adderall (d-amphetamine and amphetamine mixture)
· Desoxyn and Gradumet (methamphetamine)
· Cylert (pemoline)

Except for Cylert, all of these drugs have nearly identical effects and side effects. Ritalin and the amphetamines can for most purposes be considered one type of drug.”

Dr. Peter Breggin, from his book
Talking Back To Ritalin


“Ritalin is structurally related to amphetamine…Its pharmacological properties are essentially the same as those of the amphetamines.”

Goodman and Gilman’s
The Pharmacological Basis of
Therapeutics (1985)


“The actual impact of stimulants on the brain and mind of children are poorly understood and, despite administering the drug (Ritalin) to millions of youngsters in the past several years, psychiatry shows little interest in the question.”

Dr. Peter Breggin, psychiatrist,
from his book Toxic Psychiatry

“It is astonishing that an uncritical nation has so enthusiastically embraced a drug (Ritalin) that can cause cancer in animals, addiction in adults, brain damage in children, and whose long-term safety has not been established.”

Thomas J. Moore, senior fellow in health policy at George Washington University Medical Center, from his book
Prescription for Disaster

“Perhaps the best known effect of chronic stimulant administration is psychosis. Psychosis has been associated with chronic use of several stimulants; e.g., amphetamines, methylphenidate (Ritalin), phenmetrazine and cocaine…(This) psychosis mimics paranoid schizophrenia or paranoia so closely that it has been misdiagnosed as such by experienced clinicians many times.”

Predicting Dependence Liability of Stimulant and Depressant Drugs
by Dr. Klaus Unna, M.D. and Travis Thompson, Ph.D.

The following list of Ritalin side effects has been culled from 35 references and studies discussed in the book Talking Back To Ritalin by psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin. They are in no particular order. Some of these side effects are very common, others not as frequent, while others are rare:

pacing handwringing foot jiggling
impulsivity inattention anxiety
agitation restlessness insomnia
personality changes irritability memory problems
depression social withdrawal constriction of mental
“zombie” behavior a pinched, somber activity
inhibition of emotional expression inhibition of spontaneity
feeling leukopenia (reduced anemia (a blood disorder)
blurred vision white blood cell thrombocytopenic pur-
muscle cramping count) pura (loss of factors
sadness heart palpitations for blood clotting)
tachycardia (abnormal increased blood excessive central nervous
increased heart rate) pressure stimulation, possibly
psychosis (general dizziness causing convulsions
term for any serious headache Tourette’s syndrome**
mental disorder) tic syndromes* loss of appetite
nausea vomiting stomach pain
dry mouth weight loss growth suppression
hair loss dependency symptoms (including brain
withdrawal symptoms addiction symptoms growth)
skin disorders liver disorders twitching
oculogyric crisis severe convulsions abnormal thinking
(spasms of the eye hallucinations hostility
muscles) emotional instability amnesia
confusion nervousness neurosis (general term
stupor paranoia for any minor mental
euphoria dysphoria (painful disorder)
obsessive focusing on emotions) hypoactive (opposite of
a routine task loss of “sparkle” hyperactive)
increased weepiness paranoid schizophrenia babbling
grimacing body distortions arching of the arms and
feelings of great power ringing in the ears legs
fearful behavior tiredness listlessness
seeing and feeling dopiness dazed feeling
small creatures, arm-waving teeth grinding
especially bugs foot-tapping continuous, involuntary
incessant talking aggressive behavior tremulous tongue
loss of sensation in feeling hot movements
fingers diarrhea wild, out-of-control
enuresis (loss of hyperventilation behavior
control of urination) excessive hugging mottled skin (skin marked and clinging w/spots and blotches)
worsening of ability suppression of the disruption of growth
to think and learn production of the hormone
abnormal physical hormone prolactin visual disturbances
movements

* tics is a general term which includes a wide variety of abnormal movements, including facial twitches and grimaces, eye blinking, and various abnormal movements of the feet, hands, arms, and legs
** Tourette’s syndrome involves a combination of tics with spontaneous, uncontrollable vocalizations often in the form of a single word that may be obscene or offensive

“Every indicator available, including scientific abuse liability studies, actual abuse, paucity (scarcity) of scientific studies on possible adverse effects associated with long-term use of stimulants, divergent prescribing practices of U.S. physicians, and lack of concurrent medical treatment and follow up, urge greater caution and more restrictive use of MPH (methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin).”

Drug Enforcement Administration
Press Release, 20 October 1995

“The latest survey showed that about 7 percent of Indiana High School students had used Ritalin nonmedically at least once, and 2.5 percent of high school students use it monthly or more frequently…Used nonmedically, it often is ground into a powder and snorted like cocaine, or diluted and injected like heroin.”

Indianapolis Star article, “Teen abuse of Ritalin taking root,” 5 August 1998

“Sufficient data on safety and efficacy of long-term use of Ritalin in children are not yet available.” (Note: Ritalin was first introduced in 1956)
Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals (makers of Ritalin) info sheet on the drug

“The mode of action (of Ritalin) in man is not completely understood, but Ritalin presumably activates the brain stem arousal system and cortex to produce its stimulant effect. There is neither specific evidence which clearly establishes the mechanism whereby Ritalin produces its mental and behavioral effects on children, nor conclusive evidence regarding how these effects relate to the condition of the central nervous system.”

Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals (makers of Ritalin) info sheet on the drug

“Dr. Nadine Lambert, a developmental psychologist at U.C. Berkeley, published a paper in October (1998) with the chilling finding that children on Ritalin are three times more likely to develop a taste for cocaine.”

“U.S. Attention Deficit On Legal Drug Risks,” article by Arianna Huffington, 7 December 1998

“Even Ritalin’s manufacturer warns that “frank psychotic episodes can occur” with abusive use. While the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders states that the major complication of Ritalin withdrawal is suicide.”

from the booklet Psychiatry and the Creation of Senseless Violence by
Bruce Wiseman

“Unfortunately what I also see these days are the casualties of this new biological psychiatry (i.e., drug treatment), as patients come to me with many years of past treatment. Patients have been diagnosed with chemical imbalances despite the fact that no test exists to support such a claim, and that there is no real conception of what a correct chemical balance would look like. Patients have years of medication which have done nothing except reify* in them an identity as a chronic patient with a bad brain. This identification as a biologically-impaired patient is one of the most destructive effects of biological psychiatry…At the level of individual patients this means a growing number of overdiagnosed, overmedicated, and disarticulated* people less able to control their own identities and lives.”

Dr. David Kaiser, psychiatrist

*reify = to make (an abstraction) material or concrete
*disarticulated = not able to put one’s thoughts and feelings into words easily

“Settling for Ritalin says we prefer to locate our children’s problems in their brains rather than in their lives.”

Dr. Lawrence Diller, author of
Running On Ritalin

FAIR USE NOTICE: This document may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of mental health issues. It is believed that this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes.