More reasons not to drug kids

Six days before her twelfth birthday in January 1996, Stephanie Hall of Canton, Ohio, was found dead in her bed. Her prescribed dosage of Ritalin, the controversial medication used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD), had been increased only days before. In 1993, 14-year-old Cameron Pettus of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAlberta report Vol. 26; no. 39; p. 29
Main Author WITTMEIER, CARMEN
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Edmonton United Western Communications 11.10.1999
Subjects
Aggressiveness
Attention deficit disorder
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Child development
Children & youth
Complications and side effects
Desipramine
Drugs
Health care
Hyperactive children
Hyperactivity
Physiological aspects
Canada
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Summary:Six days before her twelfth birthday in January 1996, Stephanie Hall of Canton, Ohio, was found dead in her bed. Her prescribed dosage of Ritalin, the controversial medication used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD), had been increased only days before. In 1993, 14-year-old Cameron Pettus of Austin, Texas, met a similar fate, dying from an allergic reaction to desipramine, an antidepressant sometimes used as an alternative to Ritalin. And in August 1993, Toronto teenager Jonathan Bain, 14, died of severe liver damage after being treated with Cylert, a medication used to treat ADD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). None of these tragedies needed to occur, experts say. Two weeks ago University of Montreal researcher Richard Tremblay released a study showing that hyperactive boys do not become violent teenagers and do not need to be medicated. Published in the September issue of Child Development, a peer-reviewed journal, Prof. Tremblay's research disputes previous studies which claim that aggressive children are at a greater risk to become violent youths. "Children start off by being aggressive," Prof. Tremblay, a member of the Research Unit on Children's Psycho-Social Maladjustment, told the Globe and Mail. "All children around age two show frequent aggression and anger. As they grow older, they learn to inhibit these things."
ISSN:0225-0519