RITALIN ABUSE IS RAMPANT IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS TODAY

Most American parents probably haven't heard of the drug methylphenidate.
But they should know that, according to one 1995 federal Drug Enforcement
Agency background paper, the drug "is a central nervous system stimulant and
shares many of the pharmacological effects of ... cocaine." And more and
more typical school kids are getting hooked on it. In fact, close to four
million American children are taking it under doctors' orders every day. In
layman's terms it's called Ritalin -- a name many parents do recognize --
and it's routinely prescribed for a malady called Attention Deficit Disorder
(ADD), often loosely defined as hyperactivity.

In the most recent issue of the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review
magazine, consulting editor Mary Eberstadt surveys the medical and other
literature on Ritalin and lays out a shocking indictment of a controversial
drug whose use has more than doubled among American children just since
1990.

It's certainly no mild stimulant as its advocates suggest. Among other
evidence she cites a study showing that lab monkeys worked in the same
fashion for Ritalin as they did for cocaine. The DEA reports that Ritalin is
actually "chosen over cocaine in preference studies of non-human primates."

And, she says, it's regularly abused by high schoolers in particular and has
become popular among criminal entrepreneurs.

Eberstadt points out that "Ritalin works on children just like cocaine and
other stimulants work on adults -- sharpening the short-term attention span
when the drug kicks in and producing 'valleys' when the effect wears off."

Most damning, Eberstadt reports on several studies conducted by the National
Institute of Mental Health showing that the physiologies of all people,
regardless of whether they are diagnosed with ADD or not, respond in the
same to way to such drugs as Ritalin. Their performance and attention span
improves. That in turn destroys the widely accepted theory in ADD advocacy
circles that "if a child responds well to Ritalin he has ADD." In fact,
virtually anyone would respond well to Ritalin.

What is ADD, anyway? Well, no one really knows. Advocacy groups like CHADD
(Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder) say it's a
neurobiological disorder. But critics of Ritalin note that "there is simply
no medical science to support such a claim." (Eberstadt points out that
CHADD has received $900,000 over five years from Novartis, the
pharmaceutical giant which manufactures Ritalin.)

But it's easy to see why ADD diagnoses have exploded since the beginning of
the decade. It was in 1991 that children labeled ADD could first qualify for
special education services in public schools.

That was just too tempting for some parents and school administrators to
pass up. Other parents may think it gives their kids a competitive edge by
helping them to concentrate better.

Most likely, Eberstadt says, "the drug makes children do what their parents
and teachers cannot get them to do without it: sit down, shut up, keep
still, pay attention." Since compliance is the goal, it's no surprise that
five times as many boys as girls are diagnosed with ADD and subsequently
medicated, while in a different age they would have been said to have "ants
in their pants."

A set of questions that experienced clinicians routinely ask to diagnose ADD
illustrates how supposedly widespread the malady is. The 100 questions
include: "Do you have trouble getting started on things?" "Are you usually
eager to try something new?" "Do you change the radio station in your car
frequently?" "Do you love to travel?"

I can't think of anyone I know who wouldn't be labeled as having ADD. In
fact, when Eberstadt gave the entire questionnaire to 20 adults in an
admittedly unscientific experiment, she found that based on their responses,
almost any of her subjects could be diagnosed with ADD!

Surely there are some youngsters who do need medication for serious mental
disorders or hyperactivity. But there's little question that that reality
has become an excuse for medicating millions of normal children simply
because it makes life easier for the adults around them.

A recent New York Times story on the subject opened with " 'Ritalin,
Ritalin, seizure drugs, Ritalin,' so goes the rhythm of noontime for a
typical school nurse in East Boston as she trots her tray of brown plastic
vials and paper water cups from class to class, dispensing pills into
outstretched young palms."

To me that sounds ominously like a scene from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest."