Tag Archives: stimulants

The Portland Press Herald: Psychiatric Drugging of American Children is Cause for Alarm

The use of powerful drugs to treat younger and younger patients has gone far beyond disturbing. The age of children being medicated with prescription psychiatric drugs is getting younger and more widespread every year. According to a 2010 study of data on more than a million children reported by American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s journal, the use of powerful anti-psychotics with privately insured U.S. children, ages 2 through 5, doubled between 1999 and 2007.

The London Times: “Brittany Murphy, Michael Jackson, Heath Legder… America’s fatal addiction to prescription drugs”

The biggest killer drugs in the States right now are legal and have been prescribed. Here’s how easy it is to score and to get hooked. I went to my appointment with “Dr C’ in Los Angeles with a shopping list of the most commonly abused types of drug: pain relievers, tranquillisers, stimulants and sedatives. Beforehand, a local addiction specialist, Bernadine Fried, had briefed me on how to approach your doctor like an addict and still come away with fistfuls of pills.

The National Post: “Message to disease industry — That’s why they call it ‘acting like a child'”

Some time back I remarked on a new childhood “affliction” to be dealt with by the judicious use of drugs and psychiatrists: “Oppositional Defiant Disorder.” If you had four or more of the following as a child, you were ODD, and I guess I was, too…

Pill popping: “The misconception is that prescription drugs aren’t dangerous because a doctor gives them out”

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA)’s survey the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2008 15.2 million Americans age 12 and older had taken a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year. Addiction to and the abuse of prescription drugs, also known as “pill popping,” has become a national trend.

Disease Mongering on Adult ADHD: Just another way to sell Speed (aka Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall)

Do you have ADHD? Take this quiz (courtesy of this morning’s Wall Street Journal) to find out. If you’re like me, you may discover that you do. Of course, you may want to ask yourself this question after taking the quiz: Who isn’t easily distracted; doesn’t allow their mind to wander during boring conversations; or doesn’t engage in endless multi-tasking while leaving many projects unfinished?