RITALIN DOESN'T LEAD TO LATER DRUG USE, NEW DATA SUGGEST

Study Measured Effect On Hyperactive Boys

CHICAGO - Hyperactive boys who were treated with stimulants such as
Ritalin were one-third as likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs as
teenagers than similar boys who had not been treated, a new study has
found.

Some experts not involved in the study said it was flawed and too
small to reach meaningful conclusions.

But authors of the study - which involved 212 boys, including 75 with
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder - said the findings should
help allay concerns that giving children potentially addictive drugs
such as Ritalin may promote harmful habits later.

An estimated 3 million school-age children have this disorder, and as
many as half may be taking Ritalin or other stimulants, past research
indicates.

"There has been a mythology that the use of these medications could
'prime' children to become addicts in the future or could develop 'a
culture of drug taking,' " said Dr. Joseph Biederman of Massachusetts
General Hospital, lead author of the study.

It is published in the August issue of Pediatrics' "electronic pages,"
an Internet extension of the journal published by the American Academy
of Pediatrics.

"We believe that children with ADHD who are medically treated will
have fewer problems resulting from their disorder and more successful
lives, probably giving them fewer reasons to experiment with substance
abuse," he added.

Ritalin acts on dopamine, a brain chemical that helps regulate
thinking. Ritalin is believed to calm hyperactivity by helping
children's brains disregard distracting stimuli, such as classroom
noise, so they can focus on learning.

The subjects for the research were part of a previous study of
families with an ADHD child and families with no ADHD children.

The children and their mothers were interviewed on three occasions -
when they entered the study, one year later and four years after enrollment.

The authors studied 56 ADHD patients who were on medication, 19 ADHD
patients not on medication and 137 without the disorder.

At the study's end, 75 percent of the unmedicated ADHD subjects had
substance abuse disorders, compared with 25 percent of the medicated
subjects. Abused substances included alcohol, marijuana,
hallucinogens, cocaine and other stimulants.

Eighteen percent of the non-ADHD subjects were substance
abusers.