FDA withdraws approval for ADHD drug | ADHD Information
Which one?
[QUOTE=Jillette]Which one?
[/QUOTE]
Jill:
I have been researching "ALL" of these meds and this is what I found..well I just typed in a search engine Dangers of Ritalin and this is what I found: http://ritalindeath.com/ADHD-Drug-Deaths.htm at the bottom of this page there are links that lead you to 'other' drugs used to treat ADHD...'not pretty at all'. Look I'm not trying to scare anyone but I gotta tell you...I don't honestly KNOW now that if we HAD to medicate our son would we? I just don't know. I know that I've heard great things from great people here that basically it was their last option...I don't know if I am willing to take that step if need be now. I just want to do more research I think. Just something to really think about.
I am facing the medication issue now. I am told it will help her better socialize as well as do better in school and as it is now she is practically failing.
I am concerned about her discomfort from side effects as well as the FDA stuff.
Not to be ODD, but I typed in benefits of Ritalin, and these were the first three listings.Pediatric Advisor 2005.2: Ritalin (Methylphenidate): Pros and Cons
Benefits of Ritalin often include:. less trouble finishing classwork and homework;
less fidgeting or squirming; better control of emotions; less impatience ...
www.med.umich.edu/1libr/pa/pa_ritalin_hhg.htm - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
ADHD and Ritalin & medication
ADHD and Ritalin, find out the pros and cons. What are the benefits and the side
effects? ... Other benefits to using. Ritalin includes: ...
ne.essortment.com/adhdritalinmed_rfzt.htm - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
Learn about the benefits, risks, potential side effects, ... Includes commonly
asked questions about Ritalin's use with children and adults. ...
www.helpguide.org/mental/adhd_medications.htm - 33k - Cached - Similar pages
I saw where warning labels on all these stims is coming cause of possible heart and stroke possabilities.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-24-adhd-withdraw al_x.htm?csp=34
Here is the story:
FDA withdraws approval for ADHD drug
WASHINGTON The FDA has withdrawn approval for a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder because it has been associated with liver problems, including death, agency officials said Monday.The move means drug manufacturers will no longer produce generic versions of pemoline, which was developed by Abbott Laboratories and sold under the name Cylert. Abbott discontinued the drug earlier this year, but generic versions have remained available.
FDA is not recalling the drug, instead allowing pharmacies to sell their remaining stock as doctors still using it switch patients to alternative treatments, the agency said in a statement.
The lack of a recall drew fire from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
"It is reckless and insensitive to the health and lives of children and adults using this drug for the FDA and the involved drug companies to fail to institute an immediate recall of these dangerous products," said Drs. Sidney Wolfe and Peter Lurie, who lead the organization's Health Research Group, in a letter to the FDA.
In a statement, the FDA said it has 13 reports of liver failure resulting in transplant or death among people who took the drug, which has been available for 30 years. There are additional reports of less serious problems.
Although that is a small number, it is well above what the normal rate of such problems among the general population, the FDA said.
"FDA has concluded that the risk of liver failure with this drug outweighs the potential benefits," the agency statement says, noting that alternative treatments for ADD have come on the market since pemoline was introduced.
The drug acts as a stimulant to the central nervous system.
******************
Ok...I thought was VERY important to anyone that is taking this drug to know about these results...it's tragic.
WOW! FUN? I find none of this FUN. Glad you took your meds today I think is all I need to say. Have a GREAT day!! I find it really disturbs people when one disagrees..s'ok with me because I certainly agree to DISAGREE. (smile) I won't intimidate you anymore...sounds like perhaps you should pop another PILL!woah there, i am pauls mom. chill...
or i'll be wondering who needs the pill after all. its not fun/its not not fun but i think fallen has given a lot of great information there and we can thank him for that.
as you say - it is all research. if you took offence to shakespeare laughing at the trampoline analogy/comparison take it with a pinch of salt. there is a slight tendency on this board for people to 'clique together or gang up' but not half as bad as i have seen in a billion other boards...
i think we are really very easy-going here. we are very open. if you scroll around you will find a load of different viewpoints and a whole whack of useful information from medications to alternative cures to coping mechanisms and the lot.
i think you are bit 'pot calling kettle black' on the whole taking offence at other viewpoints here.
Pauls mom...what exactly are you pissed about....?
I'm baffled......I think what Fallen wrote was informative yet entertaining at the same time....surely you cannot begrudge someone for having a personality?
[QUOTE=sheri.m][QUOTE=Tryan920]
Pauls mom...what exactly are you pissed about....?
I'm baffled......I think what Fallen wrote was informative yet entertaining at the same time....surely you cannot begrudge someone for having a personality?
[/QUOTE] who said you could come up from the basement?[/QUOTE]
Sorry Master.........I'll go back down now.......Igor is very sorry
Yup, I'm part of the 'using my brain' clique :-/I think the 'ganging up' perception comes from paul's mom giving off an odor similar to the 'I get a funny feeling in my tummy so the experts are wrong' people.
Slightly off topic, but somewhat related, I've always wondered about the types of anti-med people who bitch about how dangerous FDA approved drugs are and then pump their kids with herbal remedies because its safer. Actually it makes my mind boggle at the incredible stupidity of those people.
Dont take the trampoline thing with a pinch of salt, it was intended to illustrate that using the ritalindeath.com page as defence of a 'drugs are bad, mmmmkay' position is very very silly. None of the 'ritalin deaths' are ritalin deaths - which begs the question "Why would anyone with a functioning brain try to use it as justification for feeling wary of ritalin?".
Decided to come out from under your rocks did you? I'm not pissed...are you? Now you havin' fun?
I won't be posting any more to this thread but those of you that ARE on
the fence regarding medicating then I suggest that you research
medications ANY way you can. (that's it for me guys.....have fun)You need help Pauls' mom.....this is not the first time I've seen you blow things way out of proportion....If you cannot handle the feedback, then why ask the questions.....?
Maybe you should submit a checklist of appropriate responses so that we do not offend your delicate sensibilitiess again...
Good grief Charlie Brown
Tryan92038651.4756018519
Ok, so I almost shot soda out of my nose reading your response.Just so I have this straight. you've gone from this:
"ok I do realize that the internet isn't a 'great' place to do research...but what you get from the internet 'is' some place to start looking. I also agree that the website http://ritalindeath.com/ADHD-Drug-Deaths.htm is biased 'against' drugs but ..... the fact remains that the website "IS" telling TRUE stories of children. Isn't it?"
To vigorously defending the site when told the answer 'NO it isnt', to attacking me, and now you're leaving while echoing points made by myself and other posters on the first pages of this thread.
You are truly a comedic genius, thank you for brightening my otherwise dull day. You may want to get a diagnosis for yourself.
Do I even want to try and untangle the Tryan/Sheri thing?Sheri is just a mean and evil wench, while I am just a sweet benevolent soul who has nothing but love and compassion for all mankind
Sheri is just a mean and evil wench, while I am just a sweet benevolent soul who has nothing but love and compassion for all mankind
OH MY GOD I HAVE TO GO PUT MY BOOTS ON NOW...
[QUOTE=Tryan920]
Pauls mom...what exactly are you pissed about....?
I'm baffled......I think what Fallen wrote was informative yet entertaining at the same time....surely you cannot begrudge someone for having a personality?
[/QUOTE] who said you could come up from the basement?TRYAN, GET YOUR BUTT DOWNSTAIRS!!!!! STOP CAUSING TROUBLE UP HERE..
Eww.. Well I can tell you it didn't make a great potato chip!LOL Thankfully our plant never made the lays with olestra - takes a special cooker we don't have. Man am I greatful! We have to sample one chip from a bag at least every thirty minutes - and anal leakage? Doesn't fit into my day running for my shorts!
I always thought 'Anal Leakage' would be a great punk band. Sounds like ritalindeath is a punk rock group.
Nah - I could respect a punk rock group LOL!! These guys are more like an old soviet trumpet team or something. Stay with the party line comrade!!
Not even a diagnosis? so you're saying that you assume your child has ADD, or did I misunderstand? Did you actually mean that you haven't been diagnosed for whatever mental impairment you have? It would just seem odd that you'd be so convinced about ADD if you dont actually have someone in your family who'd been diagnosed with it officially.Ok, I'll use small words because you have some reading comprehension issues based on your statement above.
No one leapt on you for your original post. you got a few people agreeing and tried to look smart by posting ...
"I have been researching "ALL" of these meds and this is what I found..well I just typed in a search engine Dangers of Ritalin and this is what I found: http://ritalindeath.com/ADHD-Drug-Deaths.htm at the bottom of this page there are links that lead you to 'other' drugs used to treat ADHD...'not pretty at all'"
At which point I mentioned internet research and the stupidity of using Ritalindeath.com as a resource for balanced info on ritalin.
At which point you cited ALL THE DEATHS listed can't be wrong!!! and I said 'yes, they can be.' and you sorta melted down.
Hope this quick refresher cleared up whatever cognitive dissonance seems to be effecting your posts.
I hope you'll post again so you can tell us for the 4th time how you'll not be posting on this thread :)
" won't intimidate you anymore..." 26 October 2005 at 1:37pm
"that's it for me guys.....have fun" 26 October 2005 at 2:16pm
" I've dished it out; took it and I'm done with it. Have a great day!" 31 October 2005 at 5:17pm
Wild thing, you make my heart sing!
Well I keep looking back at previous posts, and do see that many have the same type of post and maybe running the same content, but in just a different manner. I don't totally think all of these are the same people, I do say they may be from the same group. I may have leap frogged on pauls mom, for which I am sorry. No, dont agree with you there at all.
Curus != reality != Paul's Mom.
Can't speak for who else may be who else, but these three are definitely different people.
For you
LOL - I've SEEN that one before! Believe me it took a long time to get beyond that. My company was just licking the wounds when I started working there. It was a great idea that just went terribly wrong. But at least they try! I give them credit for that - though a little more R&D could have avoided "WOW - I just crapped my undies!"
I just got back from the sporting goods store. Bought a trampoline...
Why thank you Fallen. Got anything else to say? Please don't hold back now.
[QUOTE=Fallen]In case anyone wanted the math on that.
There were 100,000 injuries requiring emergency room visits.
There were 11 deaths due to falls from trampolines. 6 of these were teenagers!!! The range of ages was 3 - 43. The Commision states that this figure remains somewhat constant and that there is no increase in the fatality rate.
Therefor I have just registered trampolinedeath.com and will be fighting to ban these horrific implements of death and torture.
The government is allowing the sale of dangerous equipment that is "allegedly" useful for keeping healthy but as the figures CLEARLY show - THEY ARE DEADLY !!!!!
[/QUOTE]
Yeahhhh for you!! Ooooo...be careful.
I'm not sure bragging about it is a good idea. Next we'll have some Gymnologists here harping on about how trampolining is abuse and we should try alternative therapies like the pommel horse.
Pauls Mom,
What makes you so sweet is that it took you 5 days to come up with that.
You go girl!!!
Ok everyone, I think we all need to take a step back from this. This is what I got from the whole thread:
Paul's mom went looking for information about meds and found some scary websites that is making her think twice about the possibility of medicating her son.
Fallen wanted to clarify that these types of sites are used as scare tactics because of their own sick or warped agendas.
I thought both of these initial messages were pretty harmless and I'm not sure where the insulting started, and it doesn't matter. But here are the facts and messages that I think the both of you were trying to state.
don't medicate your child too quickly and be sure to get reliable information from reliable research and sources. don't fall for all the deaths and destruction information without looking at the real factual numbers of the research.
Lastly, I do like the analogy with the trampoline, it does put things into better perspective, and Fallen, thank you for the personal history - as you have responded to some of my posts and it's always nice to know the history of the person who may be giving you advice.
So, sorry for intruding on this personal argument, I just have always been a person who likes to keep the peace and couldn't resist saying something here. If I've offended anyone, I'm sorry, please don't be mad or if I've read this with the totally wrong emotion in my head - well, that's how my ADD mind processed it and I'll shut up now!
Have a great day!
What argument? What insults?I'm mortally offended by your attempt to not be offensive. Bah! Poop! Nice to hear from you again tho Val.
I just have a healthy sense of the absurd, and some people dont.
Oh - everyone?
I went to a group I respect to debunk the naysayers. They had a great link for me to pass on to all of our forum kin:
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/breggin.html
This is not the home page - but one that debunks so-called psychologist and anti-med crusader Peter Breggin. His books and articles are where a lot of their info comes from. Good reading for everyone - pro and con I think.
The fear that one gets when you search for help and that anti-med info comes up is understandable. If I wasn't aware of how the internet works I'd have been too. But right away I smelled a underlying theme of mis-information and delved deeper. Glad I did - or the smiling happy person here would be unemployed and crying in my cocoa now.
Hope this can help somewhat - and I am enjoying reading what everyone has to say!!
Quackwatch is great, they have some really interesting and useful information on their site.The internet is a fun place. The overall concept is fun to play with for people that haven't yet made the mental shift to what it really is, as to what people use as a relational model in their minds.
Ah the fun we'd have with Bonsai Kitten.
was it here I was writing about online communications? I just wrote a pretty large research file on it for work (which tied in with some stuff I was working on with a therapist - not my therapist).
Everything can be seen is negative.Look at medacines cite. The pharmacey should also give you the effects when the stuff is picked up. Ours does. Most deaths I bet are cause of overdosages or allergies to the med.
[QUOTE=Fallen]What argument? What insults?
I'm mortally offended by your attempt to not be offensive. Bah! Poop! Nice to hear from you again tho Val.
I just have a healthy sense of the absurd, and some people dont.
[/QUOTE]
Ah Fallen, then I must say, your avatar totally creeps me out and it makes it hard for me to take anything you say seriously.
Damn, that still wasn't offensive, was it? I guess I don't belong on this thread.
When you look at the studies p/bren - actually the deaths from ADHD meds are typically pre-existing heart defects, over exertion during exercise while having mild heart troubles, or overdose. None of these is the meds fault - anymore than a person taking 100 tylenol and rupturing their liver is the fault of Tylenol. That's the whole point I keep on these guys - they don't get it (well they do but that would take all the fear away - which is their favorite thing from what we've all seen).
Amphetamine allergy is very rare - the med has been so refined over the last 100 years (all types) that it's a very compatible drug. Overdose is the main trouble with them - as if they are taken without prescription for use as a study aid, to keep from sleep etc. they need to take higher and higher doses for it to keep working. Again - not the fault of a med that idiots want to use them for bad means to a bad end.
[QUOTE=valzap]
Ah Fallen, then I must say, your avatar totally creeps me out and it makes it hard for me to take anything you say seriously.
Damn, that still wasn't offensive, was it? I guess I don't belong on this thread.
I'm not that creepy really.
Never EVER take anything I say seriously. Contrary to popular belief it's not religion that starts conflict, but taking something I wrote too seriously (like the throwaway comment I made about summer property investment in Gaza back in 1947 for example).
I am that creepy.
LOL Fallen!!
Wow - that's a joke worthy of the confusion of a pre-bush*te Dennis Miller! Good one!!
JHarman1638656.5915162037
Everyone has an agenda JHarman. We have an agenda to inform and help each other with what we know about ADHD. They want to sell homeopathics, religious agendas and scientology nonsense. They kid themselves but if it's not money, belief or knowledge - what is it? We are seeking to be more than we are - they want us not to be.
Glad you brought it up - hadn't occurred to me for some ADHD gosh-darn reason!
Ok - now I really have to be off to work. Bye all!!
ok now that I look and see this board is ADHD Medications I certainly understand 'why' someone would take such offense to a 'warning' or by simply by doing what I did. I saw this sight and freaked...I thought to myself ... "oh my God, this can't be true....but guess what? IT IS!" Like it or not but there are websites out there that are pro/con about "ANY" medication and that includes meds for ADHD. It just seems that if one here (moi) makes a statement about 're-thinking' before medicating, research as much as you can, research more and no you can't just go to the PRO websites and get 'all' information .... this thread started with this:
FDA withdraws approval for ADHD drug
WASHINGTON The FDA has withdrawn approval for a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder because it has been associated with liver problems, including death, agency officials said Monday.The move means drug manufacturers will no longer produce generic versions of pemoline, which was developed by Abbott Laboratories and sold under the name Cylert. Abbott discontinued the drug earlier this year, but generic versions have remained available.
FDA is not recalling the drug, instead allowing pharmacies to sell their remaining stock as doctors still using it switch patients to alternative treatments, the agency said in a statement.
The lack of a recall drew fire from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
"It is reckless and insensitive to the health and lives of children and adults using this drug for the FDA and the involved drug companies to fail to institute an immediate recall of these dangerous products," said Drs. Sidney Wolfe and Peter Lurie, who lead the organization's Health Research Group, in a letter to the FDA.
In a statement, the FDA said it has 13 reports of liver failure resulting in transplant or death among people who took the drug, which has been available for 30 years. There are additional reports of less serious problems.
Although that is a small number, it is well above what the normal rate of such problems among the general population, the FDA said.
"FDA has concluded that the risk of liver failure with this drug outweighs the potential benefits," the agency statement says, noting that alternative treatments for ADD have come on the market since pemoline was introduced.
The drug acts as a stimulant to the central nervous system.
******************
Ok so I posted that here for those taking medications to READ. Ok so some posted 'other' sites like the Benefits of Ritalin. Ok so I read that too...but all in all it seems here that if one post something ANTI-med that they immediately get pounced on. S'ok with me because I'm on of those parents that thank God we've not had to medicate yet; not even a diagnosis yet; but in case we do God forbid I want to be informed on EVERYTHING that these drugs are all about. Not just the pros; and not just the cons. Ok...now with that said you go right ahead and bash away. I am 'not' going to respond to this thread any longer. I've dished it out; took it and I'm done with it. Have a great day!
So it is safe to say that I am pauls mom is reality, brent,curus,balanced,adhdbogus,etc etc.. this cut and paste posting is showing on her post and it just takes off. considering she posts ritalindeath and other things. I am convinced. My apologies to those with ADD that wont make it thru this post: to summarize: nah nah boo boo anti-drug people are silly. Then I sorta ramble about how I dealt with learning of my ADD (lots of reading). Then I summarize the benefits of looking at all treatment options. I also throw out the occasional one liner, but nothing so funny that you'd wanna trawl through the entire postFirst, what are you doing on a medication forum if you dont really have any interest in them?
Second, you claimed to be doing research on the various drugs available and were just letting people know about the drug recall and HOW TRAGIC it was.
Third, it was funny, except to those invested in the anti-drug bullsh*t. Another victim of the 'my ego tells me that drugs must be bad because I get a funny feeling in my tummy when i hear about them' school of analysis.
As for my delay in getting treatment? I didnt believe ADD existed, even though I'd been diagnosed 3 times over the years with it I still saw it as a yuppie excuse to medicate normal children into zombies so parents could roll them under the coffee table and wheel them out only when they had guests. In general I noticed patterns repeating themselves and myself entering another destructive cycle in my life. Because things are going rather well right now I decided that now wasnt the time and decided that I would learn about ADD. I read every available book on ADD at my local bookstore (7 of them), I also spent countless hours reading online via Google (tabbed browsing is awesome), everything from flakes thru to the latest neurobiology research. I also went through FDA reports on each of the various common ADD meds, and independent research from Europe and the US (to defuse the FDA are money driven bastards gene that resides in my head). When it came time for assessment I scraped up my money and went to the Hallowell Clinic for the full battery of tests - scored a maximum on the initial testing and underwent 8 hours of theraputic and neurologic testing to evaluate my brain function. Results were that yes, I have severe ADD. I was lucky that I found a therapist that clicked that believed in a combination of behavioral therapy and medication - he finds in me a 'unique' patient and he's one of the best at what he does (not Hallowell himself).
My reasoning for not seeking treatment previously? fears of mood alteration, flattening, removing the beneficial components of my ADD, changing the core 'me'. I didnt consider side effects in my analysis except from immediate health impacts - after all I would be starting on fast metabolizing meds which would mean dealing with the problem for about 4 hours before getting thru it. I also had a full physical exam before going on medication to try and catch any possible issues that may come up - as a professional wrestler I'm in pretty good shape and have pretty thorough baseline data as to my normal levels of health.
As anyone with ADD can tell you, living with a tornado in your mind is tiring. Mine runs 24/7, often sending me into loops where I need to gather information and cannot stop. (a large part of my job is to crunch huge amounts of data and give recommendations based on that). The medication allows for several things:
1. no more tornado.
2. clarity: the ambiguity of everything is removed.
3. I am able to order linearly rather than in a cloud - which enables more efficient communication with other people, and tends to piss them off a lot less.
4. I am able to listen and interact sanely rather than have my mind run in 10 directions and needing to follow up on all 10 verbally before i forget them. Wives tend to find that pretty damn tiring after a while.
5. Remembering things. With medication I have a concept of time and space, without it I have no sense of time and a fractured sense of space/dimensions.
That voice in your head that says 'ok, I have to wrap up writing this post because I have a meeting in 10 minutes'? I dont have that at all, no internal awareness of those things.
It's easy to turn around and dismiss ADD out of hand, I've done it enough over the years. Of course, my symptoms themselves could simply be side effects of having an intelligent mind.
So that was me being nice about it and giving you the benefit of the doubt - one of the joys of ADD is that I forget if I decided someone was a complete waste of my time or not.
And yes, the other posts were still funny.
One more thing. Showing how full of sh*t ritalindeath.com is was not humor. It was applying facts to the outright FUD that they're spreading.
The fact that you first stated that you were merely using it as a resource for information and now have the need to defend it by going on the attack is pretty funny too!
By the way, your emotional response to my post is evident by the increase in typos and grammatical errors. Im certainly no english professor, but the change in your writing style is pretty drastic. Are we having fun yet?
[QUOTE=i_am_pauls_mom]I personally find 'none'...I repeat 'none' of this funny. And let me ask you Fallon 'why' it took you so long to medicate yourself? Were you also searching the effects of medication or what? You standed 'intense' research...please enlighten me on what 'research' you did. It will certainly help me in 'if' we ever come to the crossroads of having to decided should we or shouldn't we medicate our son. Thanks for all your......comments. Oh and by the way...'no' trampoline in our yard. Never will be..
.
[/QUOTE]Fallen38651.3671990741I
personally find 'none'...I repeat 'none' of this funny. And let me ask
you Fallon 'why' it took you so long to medicate yourself? Were you
also searching the effects of medication or what? You standed 'intense'
research...please enlighten me on what 'research' you did. It will
certainly help me in 'if' we ever come to the crossroads of having to
decided should we or shouldn't we medicate our son. Thanks for all
your......comments. Oh and by the way...'no' trampoline in our yard.
Never will be...
i_am_pauls_mom. Reading stories on ritalindeath.com will get you what you expect: bad stories.
I medicate myself, not my child, after intense research of my options and a risk/benefit analysis.
The FDA has its issues, but on the whole it isnt as corrupt as most of the scientology/anti-drug conspiracy theorists would like you to believe.
Personally I feel that fasttracked drugs shouldnt be trusted. In general withdrawl of medication is done once there's a great deal of additional information. Even the recent withdrawl of Cyclert (sp?) was based on an incredibly small incidence of liver damage.
As Shakespeare said above: Ritalin, Adderall are both tested over many decades. The medical community start with them because they're the most tested and understood medication available to those with ADD.
The major problem with Lawrence Smiths story? There's NOTHING to back it up at all. If you do a search on Smith you get nothing but conspiracy websites, new age websites, alternative medicine sites (with conspiracy additives), and discussion forums.
Now, lets go thru what you posted one by one:
Stephanie: Natural death. The ritalindeath people are convinced it was RITALIN!!! The coroner wasnt. Read the whole article. No one changed their minds. The girl was on ritalin and died. Therefor its a ritalin death. Bullsh*t.
Shaina Louise Dunkle: Not a ritalin death, but the drug that caused the death was due to the fact she had a previous condition that was aggravated by the prescription. Thats a medical mistake, not the drug itself. Bullsh*t.
Adrian David Wade: BiPolar, killed himself. Not taking ritalin. Was taking another drug for 2 days! Hrm. 2 days on a drug that ramps up!? Bipolar is manic depression. Depressed people killing themselves? whoda thunk it! Bullsh*t.
Leanne, 15 year old female kills self while on Concerta. Ok. 15 year old girl - highest probability of suicidal tendancies and attempts (check government stats). No real details, but the parents report of cutting and another attempted suicide could mean anything.
Lawrence Smith himself? I have no clue, there's no real details you can find online about it.
Really that leaves maybe 1 based on ritalin thats proved?
The rest are bullsh*t. Dont be confused by the amount of information, because most of it is just crap, opinionated and irrelevent to the story itself in an attempt to pursuade you that there's a real danger.
I dont mean to be harsh. I dont think Ritalin or any drug is a miracle cure, it took a year of soul searching to decide to medicate myself. However, I cannot tolerate bullsh*t of the sort that is so voluminous online.
Do yourself a favor:
Google the following: "Lawrence Smith" ritalin
Find *real* links to *real* articles. Ignore any new age, conspiracy, right-wing (I like the fact he's cited all over white supremacy/dont trust the governement sites), 'alternative' fringe medicines. Find a page that doesnt have some other mention of how evil drug companies are. In otherwords, something that doesnt have an inherent anti-establishment philosophy.
Yeah, I couldnt find them either.
In case anyone wanted the math on that.
Out of 7000000 alleged kids on ritalin thats
0.0000142857% fatality rate.
To make this perfectly clear:
According to US Consumer Product Safety Commission, in the September 2000 report on Trampoline fatalities and injuries the following figures are stated:
There are an estimated 3,000,000 trampolines in back yards across the US. Thats less than half the RitalinDeath.com estimate of 7,000,000 medicated kids.
There were 100,000 injuries requiring emergency room visits.
There were 11 deaths due to falls from trampolines. 6 of these were teenagers!!! The range of ages was 3 - 43. The Commision states that this figure remains somewhat constant and that there is no increase in the fatality rate.
Therefor I have just registered trampolinedeath.com and will be fighting to ban these horrific implements of death and torture.
The government is allowing the sale of dangerous equipment that is "allegedly" useful for keeping healthy but as the figures CLEARLY show - THEY ARE DEADLY !!!!!
Please dont use the internet for drug research, it's a very very silly thing to do.
The majority of websites you will find are advocacy of some position: Prodrug sites built by the drug companies, pressure groups from various churches and brainless idiots.
The mainstream medical sites can provide some basic information and there are good resources out there, but on the whole you'd get a great deal more information by putting on a decent book that discusses the various options in an informed and unbiased manner.
IF you choose to use the internet for research dont fall into the 'if its in print it must be true' trap that so many people who misunderstand the medium have. Triple source everything, intentionally look for contradictory information if the source site is questionable (ritalindeath.com is hardly a place for balanced information).
I've also noticed that most americans have a real issue with rational risk assessment. IF you read that a drug can cause a side effect look at the studies themselves for the numbers. Again, triple source everything you can.
Then go talk to a doctor, two if you need to and ask them questions, lots of questions. risks, benefits, alternatives, etc etc.
But for gods sake, dont use ritalindeath.com or ritaliniscool.com as a basis for any sort of decisions regarding medication.
[QUOTE=i_am_pauls_mom]
Jill:
I have been researching "ALL" of
these meds and this is what I found..well I just typed in a search
engine Dangers of Ritalin and this is what I found: http://ritalindeath.com/ADHD-Drug-Deaths.htm at
the bottom of this page there are links that lead you to 'other' drugs
used to treat ADHD...'not pretty at all'. Look I'm not trying to scare
anyone but I gotta tell you...I don't honestly KNOW now that if we HAD
to medicate our son would we? I just don't know. I know that I've heard
great things from great people here that basically it was their last
option...I don't know if I am willing to take that step if need be now.
I just want to do more research I think. Just something to really think
about.