Click here to visit the new home of that's fit!

Hot on HuffPost Healthy Living:

AOL.com
MAIL

En Español

That's Fit

Send Feedback

ADHD drugmakers urged to give new warnings to patients

Posted on Feb 22nd 2007 10:06AM by Brian White

Filed Under: Motivation, Nutrition & Supplements

Do you have a diagnosed ADHD child on one of the more popular ADHD drugs? If so, this news may be of particular interest to you, as the makers of Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera and other drugs were advised by the government Wednesday on something pretty severe.

That advice was to give patients and their parents an additional warning that those prescription drugs may cause serious psychiatric and heart problems -- including sudden death. This is quite a serious warning here, and the government also suggested (I don't think it was mandated) that all patients of these prescription drugs would receive two-page "medication guides" upon picking up their next prescription.

These guides warn of heart or psychiatric problems -- like chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting or hallucinations. It's rather odd that it took all this time for these warnings to come out, and I'm not sure what triggered the government's vociferous response here. I'll be following this up later though as this will affect quite a few families.

Source

7 Comment

Tags: ADD, ADD Drugs, AddDrugs, Adderall, Aderall, ADHD, ADHD drugs, AdhdDrugs, Ritalin, Straterra

Around the Web

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bad drugs!! 2-22-2007 @ 10:44AM

I had a very bad addiction to adderall. I wish they'd take it off the market. It has become a street drug, selling from $5 to $10 a pill. For those who need it, it works, for those who don't it, it speeds them up, like crack or something. The damn doctors are prescribing it nowdays like its candy...and for some it is. good luck and god bless to anyone who is on it or trying to come off.

ADHD DRUGS ARE BAD 2-22-2007 @ 11:20AM

These type of drugs are way too dangerous for little ones to take!!! My son went on ADHD drugs for 3 months and developed TICS (sudden jerky type movements) all of the doctors he saw said not only was it not related but he had Tourettes Syndrome....I took him off the medication and with in four months the tics were gone. Now the doctors are thinking ADHD medication MAY cause tics. I KNOW IT DOES. Id rather have my child struggle in academics and be hyper then to give him a medication that give him tics and cause him high levels of embarassment and low self-esteem. To all the parents out there considering it....ITS NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!

Tammy 2-22-2007 @ 1:39PM

My son who is now 19 has taken 3 of those meds on the list in his life time. He now possibly has schizophrenia, I wonder if this was caused by the use of these medications. My 8 yr old is experiencing ADHD symptoms, I refuse to ever put him on meds especially since this has hit the news.

amy 2-22-2007 @ 1:17PM

Oh my God...My son takes adderall, and 2 weeks ago, he had a fainting spell, has the tics, and makes grunting noises. The Doctor said it could be related, lowered his dose, and never said anything about any dangers related to his heart, or sudden death issues. My son is an athlete, and this raises new concerns for me....if anyone else knows anything more on this subject, please post...I am horrified now. His ADHD is not that bad, and with him going through Puberty and him maturing, he really has improved. I'm so glad I checked my email today!!!

Lisa 2-22-2007 @ 1:33PM

A couple of years ago, my oldest son was diagnosed by an expert with ADHD. He was put on a medication and, a short time later, was having symptoms of a racing heart, etc. Around the same time, a neighbor boy had a stroke at age 8!

We decided that we wanted to get our son off of the medication. That's when we found the book Ritalin is Not the Answer by Dr. David B. Stein. We learned that these drugs ARE dangerous, and the consequences of these drugs on our kids may not be known for years. We implemented Dr. Stein's Caregivers' Skills Program and nearly a year later had our son reevaluated by the same ADHD expert. Our son no longer fit the criteria for ADHD!

Some have said to us "maybe your son wasn't really ADHD." To that I say, maybe other kids aren't ADHD, either. Maybe they will respond to a program instead of drugs. The "side effects" of the program were nothing but good...can anyone say the same for these medications? Even the manufacturers know that there are risks to these medications.

For anyone who is interested in a non-medication plan for their kids, check out http://www.drdavestein.com

Verbigeration 3-01-2007 @ 3:26PM

There are many different drugs out there for the treatment of ADHD and each of them have their own panel of side effects. Each individual will react to the medications in different ways. I have taken 4 different pills over the past 6 years. They were different variations of two drugs and finally I have found one that works for me. I too had a very low tolernace level to the side effects of the pills and would develop tics to anything over 5 mgs. However I made sure that I adhered to my behavioral therapy as well. Now I use the product Daytrana and feel that the patch form delivers the dose I need in a way that allows my body to handle it without side effects. However, without these medications, I have seen myself struggle with my behavioral therapy and subsequently go back to an unhealthy life style. Medication alone is not enough to treat this disorder but is extremely valuable to its treatment. The medication is meant to help the child or individual reach a state of normalcy so that they can have the opportunity to learn better behavioral skills that will allow them to deal with society. At the same time psychiatric diseases are not easily diagnosed. We do not have medical tests that we can use, like ECG to diagnose a heart attack. On top of this many children are coming to their physicians with more than just one disease. I urge you all to be patient and as vigilant as you are. I think there are alot of good psychiatrists and primary care physicians who know of excellent places to get reading material on these diseases and the problems that current medicine faces in addressing them.

Pat 9-07-2007 @ 6:18AM

I regret ever giving Ritalin to our now-40-yr.-old son as a child. We adopted him as an infant weighing only 6#8 oz. at birth so he had a propensity to be small. Took Ritalin from kgten. until Jr. High. We love him to pcs. and feel it was cruel to give him a drug now-known to stunt growth. We are 5'9"/6'2" and he is 5'2"! In his school pix, he always looked stoned. We'll never know if R. contributed to his small stature.