Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18276

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Marwick C
US doctor warns of misuse of prescribed stimulants
BMJ 2003 Jan 11; 326:(7380):67
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/326/7380/67

Abstract:

Europe is being targeted by the drugs industry as the next major market for increasing the use of stimulant drugs such as methylphenidate (Ritalin) and dexamfetamine, a Californian doctor specialising in behavioural paediatrics warned at a recent meeting of the President’s Bioethics Council.

Dr Lawrence Diller has become known in the United States as a critic of the inappropriate use of stimulants such as methylphenidate for the management of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Besides its therapeutic uses methylphenidate has also attracted non-therapeutic uses: pacifying unruly children, enhancing performance, and, as Dr Diller told the Council, “helping parents be better parents and teachers to teach better.”

But now, Dr Diller said, the use of these stimulants is beginning to expand outside the United States. In the 1990s the United States led the world in the use of these stimulants, with 90% of global use. In recent years this has . . .