March 14, 2006 at 06:38:26

ADHD Experts Head To Washington - Is the FDA Up To The Task?

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By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 3 of 4 page(s)

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ADHD medications help, Ms Davis acknowledged, however, they are also known to increase blood pressure and heart rate and may increase risk of stroke and arrhythmia in adults, she said.

She pointed out that last year, 25 people, mostly children, died suddenly after taking these prescribed drugs.

In light of this logical explanation, CHADD's criticism of the panel's recommendation is obviously unwarranted but hardly surprising.

The group bills itself as the nation's largest patient education group for persons affected by ADHD, and says it provides consumer, patient, and professional information. But those familiar with the marketing tactics of ADHD drugs know all about CHADD's long history of concerted effort to increase drug company profits through the sales of stimulants.

According to Dr Baughman, as far back as 1995, the DEA was contacted by the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), about the financial ties between CHADD and Ciba-Geigy, the manufacturer of Ritalin at the time.

The INCB discovered CHADD had received over $775,000 from Ciba-Geigy and charged the organization with being a vehicle for marketing a controlled substance to the public in violation of the international statute known as the Controlled Substances Act of 1971.

Ritalin is classified as a Schedule II medication. In order for a product to be classified as a Schedule II drug under the Federal Controlled Substances Act, it must meet three criteria: one, it has to have a high potential for abuse; two, it has to have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the US; and three, it has to show that abuse may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.

It seems CHADD was lobbying the Drug Enforcement Agency to get Ritalin removed from the Schedule II class and moved into a less controlled group to make the drug easier to buy.

"They couldn't do anything more valuable for the drug company, and more dangerous to the public," according to Dr Baughman.

However, it's lobbying failed, in part because of the disclosure about CHADD receiving so much money from the drug companies, according to Dr Breggin.

After conducting its own research, the DEA not only refused to reclassify the drug, on May 16, 2000, the agency issued a report to Congress that said Ritalin use had reached epidemic proportions, and that it was being abused as a recreational drug.

DEA told Congress that police were reporting that Ritalin was being stolen, sold and traded on playgrounds, as well as snorted, injected, and cut much like any other amphetamine. Although the DEA presented a thorough report, nothing was done to slow the sale of Ritalin to children.

And nothing changed as far as CHADD's employment status as a major pusher for Pharma either. For the fiscal year 2002-2003, the group's financial statements showed it received more than $670,000 from various drug companies.

In the November 29, 2004 Alternet article Drug Companies Pushing ADHD Drugs for Children, reporter Kelly Hearn further discussed the ties between CHADD and the drug companies in an interview with Dr William Pelham, director of the Center for Children and Families at State University of New York at Buffalo, a leading ADHD researcher for 30 years, and a former advisory board member of McNeil Pharmaceuticals, which markets the ADHD drug Concerta.

Over his career, Dr Pelham has written over 250 research papers on ADHD, and in 2002, he even received a lifetime achievement award from CHADD.

However, he has few good words to say about CHADD, regulatory officials, medical professionals, or anybody else involved in selling ADHD drugs to children.

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