I blogged yesterday on the danges of the drugs that are prescribed to children with ADHD.  I want to continue that conversation today.  If you want to personally discuss this with me feel free to contact me by clicking here: http://www.southingtonchiropractor.com/custom_content/2964_contact_us.html. 

FDA records also show reports of 25 deaths in children and adults between 1999 and 2003, and 54 cases of serious cardiovascular problems, including stokes, heart attacks, hypertension, palpitations and arrhythmia. But according to Dr. Baughman, in addition to the deaths cited by the FDA, the MedWatch database also contains 186 more deaths of persons using ADHD drugs for the period between 1990 and 2000.  Dr. Grace Jackson, author of “Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent,” says that “whether by ignorance or design, the FDA remains oblivious to the evidence-based limitations of ADHD drugs.” She notes that at least 40% of children fail to respond or tolerate stimulant therapy, “and about twice as many respond at least as well to non-pharmacological interventions.” “The link between stimulants, cardiovascular disease, and death,” Dr Jackson reports, “is well documented but doctors and government regulators have refused to acknowledge the dangers associated with the drugs.” The long-term outcomes for kids on ADHD drugs, she says, show diminishing effects over time, including “artificial behavioral improvements” which end when the medication is withdrawn. Because stimulant drugs cause insomnia, sleeping pills are now being fed to children to counteract the insomnia side effect. Medco Health Solutions, a managed-care firm, found an 85% increase in the use of sleeping pills among children between 2002 and 2004.

 

One of the world’s leading authorities on psychiatric drugs, Dr Peter Breggin, founder of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology and the journal Ethical Human Sciences and Services, warns that all ADHD drugs can cause “a continuum of stimulation, which includes agitation and irritability, anger, hostility, disinhibition, hypomania and mania.”