ADHD Drug Warnings Come Too Late For Many

Ms Bessner informed the panel that Leanne "will not run another base, or shoot another free throw or tease her little sister, or share memories with her own children because on October 9th 2005, she took her life."

This family's nightmare began when Leanne complained to her mother about problems concentrating and she took Leanne to a counselor, who diagnosed her with ADD and sent a recommendation to their family doctor to prescribe Concerta.

On September 18, 2005, the doctor doubled the dose after Leanne told her mother she was not feeling any better, and 3 weeks later, Ms Bessner found her daughter hanging from a loft bed with a belt around her neck in her bedroom.

"Amongst my screams," she told the panel, "I recall her beautiful brown eyes partially open.”

The family has retained the Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based law firm of, Pogust & Braslow, for the purpose of bringing a wrongful death claim against the manufacturer of Concerta, and attorney, Derek Braslow attended the hearings with Leeane's parents.

Mr Braslow says, "Leeane's story should be required reading for every pediatrician and child psychiatrist in the country."

According to WebMed on March 26, 2006, Dr Tom Laughren, head of the FDA's division of psychiatric products, said, the committee appeared "unimpressed" by more than 350 reports of suicidal thoughts or behaviors in treated children over the last five years.

"Up to 20% of middle and high school students," he stated, "already report such thoughts, and it was unclear that drugs other than Strattera led to increased risk."

Any street addict knows that crashing after taking amphetamines brings on the most severe depression, in large part, experts says, because speed almost always disrupts the appetite and sleep cycle. However, unwitting consumers of ADHD drugs would have no way of knowing this if they start feeling suicidal when they cannot eat or sleep as the speed wears.

According to Attorney Braslow, "Dr Laughren's comments are offensive and lack sympathy for those families in grief."

He points out that Leeane was not on Strattera, she was on Concerta, and she was not depressed or suicidal before she began taking the drug. "These drugs take the life out of children," he said.

"They do one of two things to children and teenagers," Mr Braslow explains, "turn them into zombies, making them passive and non-responsive or as they affected Leeane - turn them into hyperfocused, anxious kids who can't sleep and who become consumed with minor typical teen issues like friendships, boyfriends and school."

"I don't doubt that these drugs may help some adolescents or children," he notes. "But at what price?" he states, "Better grades? Quieter class rooms?"

"The FDA has finally admitted that these drugs can cause sudden death, serious cardiovascular events, hallucinations, psychosis, suicidality, mania and suppression of growth among others," he says, "but these warnings come too late for Leeane and her family."

And Mr Braslow points out that despite the new warnings, physicians continue to prescribe ADHD drugs in record numbers.

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