Speaking of Ritalin

It all comes down to the pharmaceutical companies! They have reps come into the doctors office and promote their drug. Doctors are usually rewarded by the number of prescripions that they write. The reps have a way of tracking the number of prescribtion written through the pharmacies. Doctors are rewarded with money, dinners and special events, trips ect. It's sad but that is how it works. Here recently many of the pharmaceutical companies have been confronted with this information. I do know that the budget that the pharmaceutical companies have has been cut back. They have been made (some of them) to start speaking on the downside to their drugs as well. Especially the anit-depressants. Keep in mind some doctors listen and others don't. It's all about money and nice trips. They did do away with a lot of the golf outings, front row tickets to see your favorite sport. The sky was the limit at one time. They really have cracked down a lot. It's going to be an ongoing problem until news reports keep on top of it. Since the information on the antidepressions has been released the doctors have been watching. Same with celebrex, vioxx, bextra I would see that go out all the time. What they do a lot of time with the samples is remove them from the boxes and take out the warning sheet. This is something that has been known by the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies for years it's just now people are finally taking action. Parents really need to study on their own to make the best choice for their child or themselves. The information is out there. It's sad you have to search for it on your own sometimes to find out the truth. There will be side effects to almost any medication but you should be told upfront the potential effects. I probably said more than I should have but that's what it boils down to. I work in the medical field.

Yes it does have to do with the drug companies greatly...but another problem with Ritalin is that it's not always needed. Every kid who can't concentrate doesnt' have ADD or ADHD, because a lot of the time, the kid can concentrate on things he/she likes, such as video games (they all sit in front of the thing for hours on end) but when it comes to school, they're just not interested, and therefore don't try to focus. Doctors often mistake this as ADD or ADHD and prescribe ritalin when its not needed. this is when the health problems come in...the kids don't need the meds and so the ritalin has nothing to target in the body and takes reverse effects such as increasing the kid's energy or the total wrong effects all together. or there are the kids who do have attention deficit disorder, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and they do need medicine, but Ritalin isnt the right drug for them. doctor's prescribe it b/c it works on the majority of add and adhd patients, but a lot of kids need another type of drug.

its true that its due to the companies majorly, but remember that the pharmacists distribute medicine on doctor's orders, they have no say in those kind of drugs.

no there's no room, but they happen. there could be 1000 people who react just fine to a drug, and one person who doesnt. happens all the time...

whenever they chose money over everything else. it gets worse as time goes on.

Not only are there economic and monetary reasons for the drug epidemic in children, but parents are getting busier and busier, while schools are getting more and more crowded. Kids that now act out for attention are getting drugged to make them easier to put up with. It doesnt help that a lot of their parents themselves are on anti depressants, stimulants, uppers and downers, etc.

It's just easier to drug the children than to deal with them the way that they should be dealt with.

Oh shit, half the people in my family are on Ritalin....

You know another sad thing about Ritalin...a lot of kids that get it get high off of it. That's probably what a lot of the stories were about.

The pharmacies really don't have anything to do with it. It's the way the pharmaceutical companies track the prescriptions written by each doctor. The thing is the diagnosis are being given way to early without enough study. It takes a lot of testing to give a certain diagnosis. ADD, ADHD, Bipolar are many of the diagnosis's that are just being given with only one visit to the doctor. It can take up to six months sometimes to find a medication that will work for each individual. It's trial and error in the beginning. The other thing is that the kids are getting ahold of these medication and abusing them to get a high. The key is to find a doctor that really takes the time to do the right test for your child or yourself. If you have one visit and leave and they say you have ADD you might want (highly recommend) to get a second opinion. I see this happen on a daily basis. It's sad that the world is coming to this. Someone made the comment about the parents being to busy for their children. That is so true! Children have a lot of these feelings from lack of attention. It's their way of acting out.

Nada I totally agree with you as well! Every child handles the situation in a different way. I am basing that statement on what I see at work. The children that have these problems don't know any other way to deal. I was given everything as a child I could have ever wanted. The thing was it was all material things. As I became older I could see my life was not that bad. I had the attention growing up. A little to much which caused me to rebel. I have become successful. I am also glad to hear that your cousins have too. I am not saying every child will end up that way because of their parents lack of attention. I work in Neurology/Mental Health so no offense I was pointing out a lot of the cases I see at work.

i only read one post in this thread about anyone knowing any first hand experience about ritalin...so are we talking about actual knowledge or about how the drug companies work?

actual experience- i have ADHD. i took Ritalin until i was in 8th grade (started taking it in 2nd)...i have no personal knowledge about the bad effects of it but i do know that it was a pain in my ass to have to worry about making sure i got all of my doses...now i take Concerta (once a day) and it works....if i didnt take my pills you still couldnt tell that i have it tho....noone that ever learns about me having it believes me...

NEWAYZ.. sry...sidelined myself....i agree tho...alot of it has to do with marketing...did you know that the top ten drug producing companies spend almost three times as much on advertising and marketing their drugs than they do on researching and developing them?.......

well...g2g...

They're conspiring against the world, hoping to rid of us all.