Drugging boys...

This article from the Daily Telegraph in the UK doesn't mention that most Ritalin prescriptions go to boys.

The over-prescribing of the drug Ritalin to children diagnosed with alleged behavioural problems is a growing scandal, a leading scientist said yesterday.

Baroness Greenfield, a neuro-scientist and president of the Royal Society, said the overuse of of the drug should be addressed as a matter of urgency.

In a House of Lords debate on science and education, she said children's inability to pay attention might simply be the result of too much time spent on a computer screen, or watching television where only short attention spans were needed.

"I am not proposing that we become information technology Luddites but we could be stumbling into a powerful technology, the impact of which we understand poorly at the moment," she said.

"The problem with these drugs (such as Ritalin) is that they do not target a single trait such as mood, or concentration or wakefulness.

"Drugs will manipulate in a very 'broad spectrum' way the chemicals in the brain that in turn could have both widespread and also long lasting effects."

She said that with all the new technology in schools and at home, "we must … ensure that the classroom will fit the child and buck the growing trend for the child to fit the classroom".

The number of children being prescribed drugs for so-called behavioural disorders has soared, causing alarm that they are being unnecessarily "drugged into submission".

Prescriptions of methylphenidate - most commonly sold as Ritalin - rose to 359,100 in 2004, a rise of 344,400 since 1995. Figures from the Prescriptions Pricing Authority revealed there had been a 180-fold increase in prescriptions since 1991 when only 2,000 were issued in England.

And, Ritalin's effects?

"Children are being drugged into submission," said a spokesman.

There are no medical tests for ADHD and children are diagnosed on the basis of their behaviour and questionnaires that ask if a child displays symptoms including restlessness, inattentiveness and fidgeting.

But American research found that Ritalin may cause lasting changes to the brain. In a study by the Harvard Medical School, healthy rats given the drug in their infancy were found to have a reduced sense of pleasure and were more prone to signs of despair during adulthood.

Prof Peter Hill, an honorary consultant in child psychiatry at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, believes that the concept of ADHD had become popular, "partly because it offers an alternative explanation for antisocial behaviour, other than imperfect parenting".