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According to Warning Urged for ADHD Drugs: Panel Cites Risks, Fears of Overuse (Washington Post, 2/10/06), 10% percent of 10-year-old American boys are on Ritalin or similar drugs and a federal expert advisory panel is citing "reports that they may have caused sudden deaths or serious complications." According to the Post:

"Several drugs widely used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder should carry a prominent 'black box' warning because of reports that they may have caused sudden deaths or serious complications, a federal expert advisory panel recommended yesterday.

"The proposal to require a warning on medications such as Adderall and Ritalin took the Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical companies and advocates by surprise. The panel voted 8 to 7 to call for the labeling change after reviewing reports of several dozen patients who suffered cardiac arrest, toxic reactions or sudden death while using the medications.

"Members of the board said the recommendation was driven as much by worries that the drugs are being overused in the United States as by the possible side effects: About 10 percent of 10-year-old American boys are taking such medications, and there have been recent sharp increases in the number of adults taking them.

"'On the surface, it is hard to believe,'" said Curt Furberg, professor of public health sciences at North Carolina's Wake Forest University Medical School, who voted for the black-box warning. 'What is also interesting is this condition is not really recognized in other countries -- you wonder what we are treating. I am sure there are patients who need these drugs, but it is not 10 percent of all 10-year-old boys.'"

From my experience as a teacher I can tell you that there are some kids for whom the drugs are useful--I've seen it firsthand. On the other hand, for most boys it is useless and counterproductive. I've long campaigned against these drugs, and it seems that every time I discuss this problem on a radio show some aggrieved mother or father calls up and tells me that the school wants him or her to put their kindergarten or first grade son on Ritalin. It's an outrage. The problem is not our boys--the problem is that our schools refuse to adapt and accommodate boys' educational needs and learning styles. In my column The 'Boy Parent Dilemma' (Los Angeles Daily News, 9/6/02) I noted:

"Modern schools are not suited to boys' personalities and learning styles. This can be seen from the time boys enter school, when many of them are immediately branded as behavior problems. The line of 10 kids who had to gather every day after school in my son's first grade class for their behavior reports--all boys. The names of kids on the side of the chalkboard who misbehaved and would lose recess--all boys. The kids as young as five or six who must be drugged so they will sit still and 'behave'--almost all boys...

"This afternoon, millions of us will pick our little sons up from school and hope to hear that it was a good day. Yet many of our boys will have spent much of the day being scolded and punished, often for doing nothing more than being boys. And with each of these mistreated little boys--waving their arms and running toward us across the yard, happy to be away from that place where everything feels so unnatural and they somehow always seem to be doing something wrong--comes the boy parent dilemma."

The problem is "boys will be boys" and parents/teachers need to understand this before forcing the child to take drugs.

I generally don't like the idea that "boys will be boys" as I think it excuses behaviors that really shouldn't be tolerated (I.E. destructiveness, mayhem and serious misbehavior)

Without mentioning names, can you tell us the towns/mumicipalities where this occured, Chewy? I am keenly interested to know.

Gene

And though I am not a lawyer, I have heard that in some school districts, the SCHOOL NURSE has the authority to diagnose ADD and to force the child to remain suspended until such time when the parents can prove that the child is on the drug.

I generally don't like the idea that "boys will be boys" as I think it excuses behaviors that really shouldn't be tolerated (I.E. destructiveness, mayhem and serious misbehavior) but I definitely agree that Ritalin is basically used as a cure for childhood much of the time. An inability/unwillingness on the part of a 10 year old to sit and be bored for 6 hours a day doesn't surprise or concern me. I think the answer lies in finding better ways to educate kids who don't conform well.

Unfortunately I have no suggestion as to how to do that cheaply enough for people who consider education a lower priority than a new TV.

Do have more information on this, Meta? And after 4 years of college and the examination process, your description of nurses being glorified lunch ladies is, well, wrong. And maybe you ought not make such statements until you do become a lawyer.
Gene

Please do, Chemy. If you have links or citations to news reports, or legal decisions I am interested as well. Details are quite helpful. Just because you "heard it" doesn't make it so.
Gene