ADS TARGET PARENTS (AND JOHNNY)

Makers Of Ritalin-Like Drugs, Seeking Bigger Market Share, Offer Simple
Answers To Complex Questions

We all remember Bob Dole in the Viagra commercial. We have gotten used to
the idea that drug companies will advertise their products directly to us,
even when these are prescription medications.

But until this fall, the major pharmaceutical houses had respected a
long-standing United Nations treaty prohibiting the direct advertisement to
parents of powerful and highly addictive drugs such as Ritalin for
attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Now, the manufacturers of drugs other than Ritalin have broken the treaty
and are marketing directly to parents. The ads, picturing happy boys in
idyllic families, appear in back-to-school issues of magazines such as Good
Housekeeping and clearly are intended to encourage parents to ask their
children's physicians to prescribe the drugs. The drugs, although not
substantially different from Ritalin in content, contain a time-release
mechanism so that one morning dose can get a child through the day. In
contrast, children on Ritalin typically need to see the school nurse for a
second dose.

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently added Ritalin to its list of
"drugs of concern," a list that includes cocaine, Ecstasy, marijuana,
methamphetamine and other legal and illegal drugs. Ritalin now has become
one of the drugs most abused by adolescents.

With direct advertising to parents, drug companies are aiming at a
vulnerable group. Often confused and overwhelmed by their children's
behavior, parents may grasp at something that seems to come with medical
legitimacy as well as a promise of results.

Yet there are many reasons why parents may be overwhelmed by the activity
level of their children, and there are many possible responses that do not
involve drugs.

Parents trying to cope with the multiple demands of everyday life and
parenting may see ADHD even when the real problem is less severe. Nor are
drugs the only or best way to respond to high levels of activity in
children. Common sense points out some of the initial steps -- making sure
the children are eating well (low sugar and caffeine, high protein) and
getting plenty of sleep and exercise. These are effective treatments with
no side effects. Structured programs of behavior modification also can be
effective. Turning too quickly and exclusively to drugs promotes the belief
that drugs offer a quick fix for our problems. Also, it fails to look at
the underlying environmental and social factors that may encourage
hyperactivity.

Furthermore, such drugs are most effective when monitored by skilled child
and adolescent psychiatrists. The drugs have different optimal levels for
cognitive and motor functioning. What may help Johnny think best may not
slow him down sufficiently to please his parents or teachers; what may slow
Johnny down physically also may turn him into a very dull boy.

Spurred on by these ads, parents will be asking family physicians and
pediatricians with much less training in the subtleties of the drugs to
prescribe them.

The allure of drugs is that they offer seemingly simple answers to complex
questions. Direct advertisements muddy waters that are already difficult to
navigate, solely in the name of increased market share in a lucrative
business. Such ads should be banned by Food and Drug Administration
regulations, not just international treaties with no enforcement provisions.