"CHILDREN as young as five have attempted suicide or are severely depressed while on drugs to treat ADHD, by KATE SIKORA, October 13, 2009 12:01am.
The Advertiser has obtained reports from the Therapeutic Goods Administration showing at least 30 children have had severe psychotic episodes and wanted to kill themselves.
One boy, 7, became so depressed last year while on Ritalin he tried to commit suicide.
Serious reactions to ADHD drugs have doubled in three years, up to 827.
But the true extent of the side effects is unknown, with many doctors and parents under-reporting.
Use of heavy stimulants has been questioned by child experts who believe the drugs, including the failed adult anti-depressant Strattera, could be masking the true psychological problems of children.
It is also difficult to know if the drugs made a child suicidal or if the tendencies already existed, said Dr Jon Juriedini, head of psychological medicine at the Women's and Children's Hospital.
"It is difficult to say whether a drug is good or bad based on the adverse reactions," he said.
"However, when a drug, such as Ritalin or Strattera, is not proving to be beneficial or making people better, then you need to way up the side effects and ensure you don't get adverse reactions.
"There's very poor evidence that they are effective in anybody."
There are about 400,000 scripts for ADHD drugs, including Ritalin, Strattera, Dexamphetamine and Concerta issued each year.
A black box warning was recently placed on Strattera packaging advising consumers it causes suicidal tendencies.
"There's suggestive evidence that Strattera might be associated with psychotic suicidal behaviour," Dr Juriedini said.
"There's clear evidence that stimulant drugs tend to cause or precipitate psychotic episodes in children."
The majority of the cases involving children are boys aged between nine and 12 years old.
This year, one eight-year-old hallucinated every day for three months and experienced spiders crawling on his skin."
3 comments:
Hmmm.. interesting...
Many systematic reviews and meta-analyses of ADHD pharmacotherapy have shown that drug is as effective as psychotherapy.
But true enough.. not many long-term, randomized and controlled studies being conducted to see the side effects of it..
Should either opt for the combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy or only psychotherapy to deal with ADHD kids..
otherwise.. kesiannye budak2 tu dan mak bapak budak2 tu...
nak bg ubat kang jadik bende lain.. tak bg ubat pon jadik bende lain...
As a former elementary school principal, I am quite aware that attention difficulties are just the tip of the iceberg. ADHD children can't filter out distractions, finish tasks on-time, use their memory optimally, etc. A pill doesn't teach these skills.
Instead, my wife and I opted to use cognitive training for our son, Alex. We used Play Attention (www.playattention.com) and ADHD Nanny (www.adhdnanny.com). We've been very successful with these approaches. We also changed our parenting skills with great success.
It's just important to know that medicine teaches nothing. Parents and teachers must actively participate to help change a child's life.
dah macam gynea la you
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