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General Parenting
Ritalin dangerous," judge says
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 39026" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Technically, easy child 2/difficult child 2 is on dex for ADD, not ADHD. She and difficult child 3 have never been on ritalin; difficult child 1 has. He was on it for some years before we changed to a doctor who would treat all three. THAT is the doctor who switched difficult child 1 to dex. difficult child 1 was having problems with rebound on ritalin anyway.</p><p>A young friend of ours had the opposite problem - was started on dex but had bad rebound with it, he's now doing very well at uni on ritalin.</p><p></p><p>MWM, I know these medications are potentially addictive (ie not addictive when taken as directed - only in much larger, abuse-level dosages). At various times my older two have missed their medications. I see no withdrawal problems, especially with easy child 2/difficult child 2. She's as silly as a two bob watch without medications, but even after days she's no different or showing any signs of aggression - she just can't focus and is a ditz. Her behaviour without medications - it's like a 14 year old high on caffeine at a pyjama party.</p><p></p><p>In Australia diagnosis is fairly closely scrutinised, because the medication is VERY closely supervised. A doctor with a lot of ADHD patients has to justify this and be prepared for his case files to be independently assessed by a panel of doctors. The same with his prescribing - these drugs are subsidised by our government and they like to cut costs if they can prove a patient has been misdiagnosed. before prescribing any of these drugs to a particular patient, our doctors have to write to the government requesting permission to prescribe in this case. The dosage range is fixed at this point. Then once permission comes in, for each prescription the doctor has to telephone the HIC (Health Insurance Commission) prescription line and get authorisation. The authorisation number is written on the prescription and duplicated into the doctor's records; the patient's details, Medicare number (like Social Security number) and prescription number are given to the HIC over the phone. A prescription with repeats has to be kept at the same pharmacy and any outstanding prescriptions are immediately cancelled by the HIC when the doctor rings up. The pharmacist may not fill repeats in less than a certain number of days (fixed by HIC for each patient). The prevents stockpiling.</p><p></p><p>To medicate the child - ALL medication must be handed in to the school office. No child may self-medicate with even an aspirin. The only exception is an asthmatic child with an inhaler. Even Epipens are generally kept in the school office. Each child must then present to the school office to be medicated. Only one specified staff member may administer medication and they have to be trained for this. All medications are kept in a locked drawer with signed paperwork from both parents and doctors to go with it.</p><p></p><p>It is maybe still possible for these drugs to be abused in Australia, but far less possible than it used to be ten years ago. There are nastier drugs which are far more accessible (and therefore cheaper, for a bigger 'high') so the market for illicit stims has bottomed out.</p><p></p><p>The news today is still covering this, which makes me disappointed. I believe there is going to be yet another enquiry, which I consider a political kneejerk reaction to a highly-placed idiot speaking out of turn. All the research has been done to show that what this judge is saying, simply is not true. But looking at the comments engendered by this article in this rag of a newspaper (think -National Enquirer) there is a lot of prejudice and misinformation out there. Too may comments are saying that ADHD doesn't exist, it's just an excuse for bad parenting. Or another one - "I had a friend who took ritalin, he committed suicide in his teens therefore ritalin was the cause" - not necessarily. I know a lot of kids with ADHD get very depressed in their teens, more than the average teen. Chicken or the egg. </p><p></p><p>We have a federal election coming up at some yet-to-be-announced time in the future. As a result, electioneering is well under way and our government is doing everything it can do to be SEEN to be doing something. An enquiry into something that is already crystal clear is a waste of time and funds. Why not use the same money to look into more accurate assessments for diagnosing ADHD?</p><p></p><p>Sometimes I get so angry with our government and our media I could spit.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 39026, member: 1991"] Technically, easy child 2/difficult child 2 is on dex for ADD, not ADHD. She and difficult child 3 have never been on ritalin; difficult child 1 has. He was on it for some years before we changed to a doctor who would treat all three. THAT is the doctor who switched difficult child 1 to dex. difficult child 1 was having problems with rebound on ritalin anyway. A young friend of ours had the opposite problem - was started on dex but had bad rebound with it, he's now doing very well at uni on ritalin. MWM, I know these medications are potentially addictive (ie not addictive when taken as directed - only in much larger, abuse-level dosages). At various times my older two have missed their medications. I see no withdrawal problems, especially with easy child 2/difficult child 2. She's as silly as a two bob watch without medications, but even after days she's no different or showing any signs of aggression - she just can't focus and is a ditz. Her behaviour without medications - it's like a 14 year old high on caffeine at a pyjama party. In Australia diagnosis is fairly closely scrutinised, because the medication is VERY closely supervised. A doctor with a lot of ADHD patients has to justify this and be prepared for his case files to be independently assessed by a panel of doctors. The same with his prescribing - these drugs are subsidised by our government and they like to cut costs if they can prove a patient has been misdiagnosed. before prescribing any of these drugs to a particular patient, our doctors have to write to the government requesting permission to prescribe in this case. The dosage range is fixed at this point. Then once permission comes in, for each prescription the doctor has to telephone the HIC (Health Insurance Commission) prescription line and get authorisation. The authorisation number is written on the prescription and duplicated into the doctor's records; the patient's details, Medicare number (like Social Security number) and prescription number are given to the HIC over the phone. A prescription with repeats has to be kept at the same pharmacy and any outstanding prescriptions are immediately cancelled by the HIC when the doctor rings up. The pharmacist may not fill repeats in less than a certain number of days (fixed by HIC for each patient). The prevents stockpiling. To medicate the child - ALL medication must be handed in to the school office. No child may self-medicate with even an aspirin. The only exception is an asthmatic child with an inhaler. Even Epipens are generally kept in the school office. Each child must then present to the school office to be medicated. Only one specified staff member may administer medication and they have to be trained for this. All medications are kept in a locked drawer with signed paperwork from both parents and doctors to go with it. It is maybe still possible for these drugs to be abused in Australia, but far less possible than it used to be ten years ago. There are nastier drugs which are far more accessible (and therefore cheaper, for a bigger 'high') so the market for illicit stims has bottomed out. The news today is still covering this, which makes me disappointed. I believe there is going to be yet another enquiry, which I consider a political kneejerk reaction to a highly-placed idiot speaking out of turn. All the research has been done to show that what this judge is saying, simply is not true. But looking at the comments engendered by this article in this rag of a newspaper (think -National Enquirer) there is a lot of prejudice and misinformation out there. Too may comments are saying that ADHD doesn't exist, it's just an excuse for bad parenting. Or another one - "I had a friend who took ritalin, he committed suicide in his teens therefore ritalin was the cause" - not necessarily. I know a lot of kids with ADHD get very depressed in their teens, more than the average teen. Chicken or the egg. We have a federal election coming up at some yet-to-be-announced time in the future. As a result, electioneering is well under way and our government is doing everything it can do to be SEEN to be doing something. An enquiry into something that is already crystal clear is a waste of time and funds. Why not use the same money to look into more accurate assessments for diagnosing ADHD? Sometimes I get so angry with our government and our media I could spit. Marg [/QUOTE]
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