"Ritalin may cause long-term brain damage"

For years, we have been told that Ritalin, the drug used on children with the dubious disorder Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD or ADD) is harmless. Now comes news in the August 22, 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that Ritalin does indeed cause long term brain damage similar to its chemical relatives cocaine and amphetamine.

Lead researcher, Prof. Joan Baizer of the University of Buffalo says, "clinicians consider Ritalin to be short-acting. When the active dose has worked its way through the system, they consider it all gone." She went on to say that this concept may be wrong, that their research "suggests that [Ritalin] has the potential for causing long-lasting changes in brain cell structure and function."

Amphetamine and cocaine activate genes in the brain that are responsible for addiction. This study showed that these same genes were activated after exposure to Ritalin. "These data do suggest that there are effects of Ritalin on cell function that outlast the short term and we should sort that out," Baizer said.

In commentary, we agree. Despite research that proves over and over again that Ritalin is a dangerous drug, people who have a financial interest in seeing this drug inflicted on children say it is safe when used in small doses. Nonsense. Any drug which has much the same long-term action as cocaine and amphetamine (speed) cannot be safe to use in children no matter what the dose.

Since Ritalin and cocaine are functionally similar, see how this sounds: "Every morning we give our son a small amount of cocaine to help him pay attention in school. It's just a small dose and his grades have gone up!"