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ADHD Drugs Proven Absolutely Useless for Children – Plus, They Stunt Growth
David Gutierrez
Natural News
Friday, July 10, 2009
(NaturalNews) Stimulant drugs such as Ritalin provide no long-term benefit in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to the latest findings of the ongoing Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA), published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
According to previous analysis of MTA data, stimulant drugs do improve the social functioning and reduce symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity in children with ADHD for the first year of treatment. In the current analysis, however, researchers followed 485 children for eight years and found that children who remained on medication for that entire time showed no improvement in symptoms over those who had stopped taking the drugs.
“If you put a child on medication, he or she is far better right at that time. The question for parents is: Is this going to make a benefit for my child long term?” said researcher William Pelham, of the University of Buffalo. “The answer is no. Behavioral treatments are going to have much better benefit in the long term.”
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Another analysis of MTA data, published in the same journal, found that use of ADHD drugs appeared to stunt children’s growth. Children who had never taken stimulant drugs were an average of six pounds heavier and 0.75 inches taller than children of the same age who had taken the drugs for three years. This height and weight difference was permanent.
According to Pelham, behavioral treatments for ADHD can be harder to find than drugs, and often insurers will not cover them. Nevertheless, such treatments are available and have been proven to work without the side effect risk of pharmaceuticals.
“It’s wrong for a doctor to say to a parent, this treatment is harder to find, so instead we’re going to put your child on a drug that will have no long-term benefit,” he said.
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23 Responses to “ADHD Drugs Proven Absolutely Useless for Children – Plus, They Stunt Growth”
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July 10th, 2009 at 6:23 am
If your child has ADHD, First stop feeding him/her artificial food coloring, splenda, sucralose, nutrawswet, MSG (modified food starch, corn oil, hydrolized yeast extract, and other names), hydrogenated oils, fast food, etc…. Start feeding him/her a find quality omega-3 suppliment with an adult serving size. This will help the child to produce the inhibitory neurotransmitters that enable the child to better control his/her behavior. I use the Standard Process Tuna-Omega Oil, but there are ohter flax seed and fish oils out there. Be sure to keep them in the fridge after opening. Also, the quick test for a quality Omega-3 Oil supplement is for the parent to chew one of the gellcaps and if it tastes sour, then that supplement is rancid and you should choose a different brand. Positeve change in the child’s behavior should be seen in 3 weeks. If have had great success with oemga-3 oils for treating ADHD in my practice.
Annonymous Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I agree whole heartedly with this, it’s been a nightmare when friends come over to our house, we serve organic home made foods, which a lot of kids have never had, they go away thinking wow! My kids are healthier for it. When a friend of mine was buying icecream there are only two brands that don’t put artificial colour into Vanilla icecream or artificial sweetner. They are very hard to find. She gave up and I told her I make my own icecream. I use Omega oils all the time. but I still had to use Ritalin, but on a very low dose.
cookie Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Dr. Reed, why are you treating ADHD. Aren’t you a chiropracter? I’m not trying to offend, I was just wonderin . . . . .
AlteredState Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Thanks for the advice. My nine year old step son is ADHD. Even though his mother knows not to give him most of what you mentioned. She still buys foods containing those ingredients. he does eat the crap out of tuna fish though. I do cook dinner from scratch and rarely do we eat out.
July 10th, 2009 at 7:28 am
Empirical evidence as well as my own experiences tell me that this article is 100% pure bovine excrements.
Are there a LOT of wrong diagnosis? YES. Are there a LOT of kids out there on these drugs who absolutely should NOT be? YES. But are these drugs useless for kids suffering form the actual neurological disorders that cause real ADHD? Absolutely not.
qbit Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 8:34 am
well in my own experiences, amphetamines fry kids brains, whether they “need” to be on it or not.
krash2fast Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Pat,
No offense, but based on your comment, you’re 100% bovine excrement. You make an entirely gratuitous denial. WHAT empirical evidence?!?!?! Link, please?! Or does this supposedly empirical evidence exist? If you can’t source it, it’s not real. So you call a published, peer-reviewed scientific study BS based on… your own experiences? and you can’t even name them?
Sod off, troll.
LRRP 1968 Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Unfortunately for your argument, there are no defined or identified “neurological disorders” that these drugs treat. It is all voodoo. If you ask they will tell you that they diagnose “symptomatically” which means they have no idea what they are treating.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:32 am
you know what children need a good old fashion ass whipping and lawmakers and overpaid stupid judges need to be insain asylums
I'm So Bored With The U-S-A Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Yeah, nothing makes kids less prone to violent behavior than suffering physical abuse themselves…
Maybe you can get them to stop smoking cigarettes by forcing them to smoke a whole carton at once next, jackass….
July 10th, 2009 at 9:33 am
with no pension or benefits or weekly pay
July 10th, 2009 at 9:34 am
and their extremely evil; puppet master need to be their to
July 10th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I have ADD and was put on Ritalin as a high school student and this is what I have come to learn:
A person not being unable to pay attention to someone going on and on for hours about a subject that is of no interest is not a sickness. Especially when that person is a child.
The education system cannot keep up with a child’s natural curiosity, imagination and ability to learn. Suppressing their minds and making them zombies isn’t the answer.
Anyone ever see the Onion (satire) News article:
Aug4/1999
“RITALIN CURES NEXT PICASSO
WORCESTER, MA—Area 7-year-old Douglas Castellano’s unbridled energy and creativity are no longer a problem thanks to Ritalin, doctors for the child announced Monday. “After years of failed attempts to stop Douglas’ uncontrollable bouts of self-expression, we have finally found success with Ritalin,” Dr. Irwin Schraeger said. “For the first time in his life, Douglas can actually sit down and not think about lots of things at once.” Castellano’s parents reported that the cured child no longer tries to draw on everything in sight, calming down enough to show an interest in television.”
July 10th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
When I was in High School, the school psychiatrist tried to have me committed because although I was intelligent, I didn’t excel in classes. I was athletic, but not a jock. I did slack off, but wasn’t a dirtbag (the kids who just sat around all day and competed with each other to get the most failing grades). I had also come from a parochial school where I was the one picked on – a lot. Back then, I was diagnosed as hyperactive. So, since she (a Dr. Kiss) could not classify me in a particular cubbyhole, she wanted me committed because is freaked once in Gym. As my father so succinctly put it, “Dr. Kiss, my son is intelligent, so as far as I am concerned, you can kiss my ass. He is going to stay in school.” My parents encouraged me to pursue photography, astronomy and computers, gave me a well-rounded education, and allowed me to be myself.
What people are doing now is judging kids by adult standards. Problem there is you cannot do that. Kids are kids. Their brains are developing. If we are to really keep kids off drugs, then we need to educate not only the children, but the parents as to the effects of all drugs, legal and illegal. Even my kids rarely take cold medicine when they are sick. My wife and I give them bed rest, herbal remedies (peppermint tea works well), chicken soup, and plenty of love.
God help the person who gives any of our kids any drug without our knowledge, and afaic, my children will never be on the prescribed drugs that psychologists prescribe.
I personally saw, before Ritalin became popular, the effects of prescribed drugs on a child back when I worked at a Scout camp about 23 years ago. This kid was doped up. His parents dropped him off on the camp for the entire summer, with a damned pharmacy. Even the camp medic was wondering why this kid was on so many drugs. I even had to save him from drowning during a water carnival we had because the kid was so out of it he didn’t know to reach for the pole the lifeguard was using to reach him. I had to jump in, grab the kid, and pull him to the shore.
Let’s face it, we have to stand between our kids and the pharmaceutical industry if we want them to grow up without drugs.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Back in the 50’s & 60’s America had these things called “scientists.”
They did many studies about the popularly prescribed – and over the counter – amphetamines that were widely available then, and concluded that, while these stimulants improved productivity, focus, and promoted a general sense of well-being, they also caused irreparable changes in body chemistry, addiction, high blood pressure, increased heart rates, a decline in critical reasoning, and, in some cases, madness and/or death.
As such, these drugs were made illegal.
(This action, of course, led to the development & street marketing of what is now known as “meth,” but that is a debate for another time.)
Nowadays, parents that would never even consider giving their kids something with sugar in it – let alone caffeine – routinely dose their children on amphetamines, and marvel at the fact that their kids behave in exactly the same fashion as the Miltowne wives of old.
(The pharmaceutical companies claim that these drugs produce the exact opposite effects in pre-adolescents, but offer no tests to ensure a child’s metabolism hasn’t changed before prescribing them, perform no tests after their use has begun to ensure that is the case, and now market the exact same drugs to adults, who experience the exact same effects as the children who take them.)
I’m all for drug legalization & personal choice, but these kids have neither, are often forced to take these drugs just to attend school, and are suffering permanent brain damage & addiction all in the name of a bogus cookie-cutter ideal of productivity.
The fact that the drug companies have the gall to call these drugs safe & non-addictive – in the same misleading fashion they did with Oxycontin, which was the exact same opioid the Nazis used as “Eukodal” to disastrous results – all while knowing full well of the real damage caused by their use, illustrates their true motives.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I can agree with some point in almost every comment. I do think that drug therapy has its place in treating neurological disorders. My kid was diagnosed as ADD long before it was fashionable and long before the masses of undereducated school system drones started handing them out like candy as a panacea for every misunderstood or nonconformist child.
My child only took ritalin while at school and only in small doses, and it did make a difference for him.
There are a lot of things the average teacher can do to improve a childs ability to stay on task without benefit of any drug. Sadly, without a parent who has the stamina to fight for those small things that make such a huge difference and the willingness of the school system to be a part of those solutions, I’m afraid the drug companies and quack doctors are the only ones that will benefit.
July 10th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
My son’s school had me take him in for an evaluation when he was in 1st grade to test him for ADHD, and of course they said he was. But unlike many parents I didn’t let them put him on any prescription drug like Ritalin and forced the teachers to deal with him at school while we worked with his behavior at home. At first his behavior was difficult because he was just a high strung independent kid, but over time the calls from the school got less frequent and now he is going to be starting 6th grade and has pulled pretty much an A and B average through previous years. He tests in the 90% which is well above the state average on the yearly tests they take.
The reason why I wanted to talk about my son grades in school is because my nephew wasn’t so lucky. He was also classified as having ADHD and his mother had him put on Ritalin. Before the Ritalin he was like my son, a free spirit, he could be a handful at times but nothing that couldn’t have been dealt with. When my nephew graduated from school he could barely read a menu from Mc Donalds. I think ADHD isn’t a sickness, its people not wanting to deal with children that can be difficult. With a little patience and a healthy diet these kids can change without the mind numbing drugs that doctors are pushing on them.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
THE SHOCKING TRUTH!
http://it.truveo.com/DARPA-iXo.....3870473341
July 10th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
http://www.disclose.tv/action/.....NG_TRUTH_/
July 11th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Now there’s a shocking revelation – a website called “Natural News” has taken issue with pharmaceutical drugs and has cobbled together an article in support of its position.
I can’t even be bothered anymore.
July 13th, 2009 at 7:57 am
omega 3’s helped me get off drugs a lot and recover a good frame of mind, but I still am denied jobs because of patriot act provisions that research every mistake I ever made in life from 30 years ago. I would say that tuna based omega 3’s could be suspect due to mercury in the tuna, but I am not sure, also , most gelcaps are pork based, so what I do is taste them to see if they are sour and if so I don’t use it ,but otherwise, sprinkle the oil inside on a salad/ocean(not farm raised) fish recipe.
July 18th, 2009 at 2:03 am
Ugh, the Scientologists always come crawling out of their little caves for articles like this. Folks, please do some research before you throw out half-baked opinions. “Medication has no role in neurological disorders”? Are you dead serious? Yes, let’s leave folks with schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and Brain Tumors all unmedicated. A beautiful solution. There is more evidence for the neurological etiology of ADHD than most of that list, fyi, and the response rate for ADHD medications is higher than that of blood pressure medications. The clinical evidence is irrefutable *if you bother to read it*. And Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia, and ADHD are all dopamine disorders-it’s utterly ridiculous to recognize two of them and to pretend the third doesn’t exist. There is no medical debate on the existence of the disorder- that debate is largely a product of Scientology-sponsored misinformation campaigns. (They’re they ones behind all of the ritalindeath websites) Fyi, that organization is dedicated to eradicating psychiatry from the face of the planet because L Ron Hubbard (a schizophrenic himself, according to court documents from his 2nd divorce) decided they were Nazi spies with a plan for world domination. That’s where most of the information people are relying on in this thread comes from. Classy source. You don’t have to like reality, but you don’t get to deny realistic treatment for a real disorder to children over it. As someone who actually has ADHD, I can tell you that medication saved my life. And I would be in MUCH better shape today if someone had cared enough when I was a kid to diagnose me and give me the treatment I needed. ADHD is a neurological disorder those of us who suffer from it deserve to live at least relatively normal lives- your own myths and misconceptions of the world aside.
SH Reply:
July 20th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Agreed. I believe the ones that are speaking the against drug therapy have been misdiagnosed. Ironically, because medication is so effective in treating ADHD the diagnosis is being used by school systems along with lazy doctors to offer simplistic solutions to more complicated problems. Diagnosising and treating other types of behavior, neurological, and learning problems takes time, money, and often a bit of creativity. Something I find sorely lacking in most public school systems and officials.