Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8954

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: news

Reuters , Nader C.
Drug use rockets for ADHD youngsters
The Age (Melbourne) 2007 Mar 8
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/drug-use-rockets-for-adhd-youngsters/2007/03/07/1173166800292.html

Full text:

THE use of drugs to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, has more than tripled worldwide since 1993, with Australia among the heavy users.

Spending on such drugs rose ninefold between 1993 and 2003, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, reported.

“ADHD could become the leading childhood disorder treated with medications across the globe,” said Professor Richard Scheffler, an expert in health economics and public policy, who led the study.

Roughly one in 25 American children and adolescents is taking medication for ADHD, the researchers found.

“The usage of ADHD medications increased 274 per cent during the study period,” Professor Scheffler’s team wrote in the journal Health Affairs.

Australia and Canada had much heavier use than the researchers predicted.

Methylphenidate, sold under the brand name Ritalin by Novartis, was once the standard. But costly medications like Johnson & Johnson’s Concerta and Strattera, made by Eli Lilly and Co, are driving up costs.

Daryl Efron, a pediatrician at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, said the rate of prescribing varies between states, but about 1 to 2 per cent of children were on medication.

“Some children with ADHD do not need medication … there is no evidence in Australia of general over-prescribing,” he said.

Dr Efron, who sits on advisory boards to Novartis and Eli Lilly, said for children who had only mild cases of ADHD, other treatments included behavioural management, individual psychotherapy or family therapy.

Professor Florence Levy, a senior staff specialist at the Sydney Children’s Hospital, said the fact that use of the medication varied between states in Australia was a concern and should be monitored.

REUTERS with CAROL NADER